Hindsight

It’s scary hearing about things that were part of my childhood in danger of vanishing from existence. I mean, I remember this stuff.

For some reason one episode stands out - Burton and his gang of book-toting kids head off to the woods to go camping and learn how to cook about a fire, sharing ghost stories and the like. It’s one of those vivid images in my mind.

I think if I heard the theme song right now I’d feel like a little kid again.

…”Reading Rainbow,” which has counterintuitively used television to introduce children to a world of books, may only have a few months to live…
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Last night I couldn’t help but go to Koichi’s. The weekend was quiet, as all the re-contracting ALTs went to Kobe City for a JET re-contracting conference.

I met up with Yoshiko for yakitori, gyoza and some chu-hi lime and umeshu. Eventually we also crossed a few high school ALTs including C who teaches at Kokura Higashi High School (right across the street from Tahara JHS). Chats came and went, this and that. It was a good time.

When I woke up this morning, I walked out to my balcony and felt a breeze that could have come from dreams. Trees filtered the sunlight and the temperature was perfect. It was surreal. I’m talking “this climate is too perfect” surreal.

My 3-nensei and 2-nensei did great in their classes. Chiyo has become my new favorite school - the students are showing good english practice in the classes. Despite their fatigue as we teach the lesson, they light up when they come up in pairs to test their speaking. It’s surprising - the 3-nensei are showing a bit more energy than the 2-nensei this week.

One of my friends up north in Miyagi prefecture (north of Tokyo) notified me of an Earthquake that occurred today at about 6:30 pm. It registered 6.9 or so on the Richter scale:

CNN News Link

I didn’t feel anything, as I am in the southern region of Japan in Kyushu. Still, I hope that those of you who were in an affected area are safe and unhurt.

Yoshimura-sensei asked me to correct a section of the 3-nensei’s most recent handouts. The directions were to write about something Japanese and introduce it to me.

Omura:
This is called a “Umeshu”
When father is tired, it is used.
Father and mather say it’s very delicious.

Maruoka:
This is called a samulai
It’s used when you katana.

Yoshiki:
This is called a “Kuromame”.
It’s often eat on New Year’s Day.
It’s very very doog.

…I found “doog” to be the cutest mistake.

Four classes, and they all went fine. Perhaps it was the rest I had this weekend. I didn’t sleep well last night but I still woke up in a decent mood and pushed on from class to class.

I checked my schedule once again and realized that after this week I will have two more weeks of team teaching at Chiyo. One next month and near the end of July. The rest are with Tahara. Getting close to the end. But doing what I can until then.

Oh:

http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/returner.shtml

“But most importantly, director Yamazaki is well aware of what kind of movie he’s making and has a lot of fun with it. He’s got a strong visual flair and a knack for compensating for a limited budget. The result is a film that, while you won’t be banging down your friends’ doors to show it to them, will probably entertain most people. And that may be just what Japanese cinema needs…”

Exactly.

My weekend has pretty much come and gone. I had a good time, though.

Saturday I went around Kokura to find the special edition of “Returner” and managed to pick it up. Had lunch at Ichiran as well before heading off to Kokuraminami to meet up with Mrs. Shimomoto.

Once I was at their home I was introduced to her friends, two other couples who spent the afternoon there so that we all could talk and drink over yakiniku (a barbeque of sorts). It was good. I had my fair share of meat, vegetables and beer. Later we watched some DV of the Shimomoto’s excursion to Germany just a few weeks before.

They were invited to one of their old friend’s weddings, so they went out to Germany where they sampled German cuisine, did the tourist route and drove over 200 km/h on the Autobahn. I’d say that’s a fine trip.

This morning I woke up too early and felt the effect of drinking too much. Dizziness and mild frustration with it. Luckily I went back to sleep and several hours later I was refreshed. We all drove to Yamaguchi prefecture (north of Fukuoka-ken past the Kanmon Tunnel) where we went to an onsen. Hot springs.

Leaving from an onsen is like taking the ultimate bath. The hot water might get you at first but once you’ve bathed for awhile it’s just the ultimate refreshment. Good for the skin and just good for relaxation.

Shoji drove shortly afterwards where we stopped to eat yakisoba. I forgot the name of the dish but it was served on what seemed to be a (traditional, Japanese style) roof shingle. Neat.

They took me home afterwards.

The wind has picked up since this morning. At first I wondered if a typhoon was passing by Kyushu (they never really hit us directly, instead going around towards central and northern Japan). From what I gather, it’s just very strong winds. So strong that you can hear them cause a rumble through this apartment complex that is Kanada Kodan.

Two 1-nensei classes today went just fine as they have all week. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: 1-nensei are always fun to teach as they have amazing amounts of energy. Homeroom 1-2 at Tahara had to have the loudest group of students I have seen in recent memory. Everyone had a piece of paper, trying to find their matches.

“Are you Demi?”
“No I’m not.”

“Are you Keiko?”
“Yes I am!”

Some classes have increased in their student capacity - at Tahara some of my 1-nensei classes have 50 kids in a class. It’s really insane. And with everyone asking each other if they are so-and-so, the noise level jumped tenfold. Madness but Matsuo-sensei and I were quite happy that they were learning their newfound english.

Mrs. Shimomoto called me up at lunch. I’ve been invited to my homestay family’s residence again, this time to attend a little party/gathering and to stay over the night if I’d like. Why not? It’s fun hanging out with Hitomi, Shoji and their kids Miko and Kanta.

My first memory of seeing Takeshi Kaneshiro was his role in Wong Kar Wai’s “Chungking Express” and “Fallen Angels”. On another occasion I saw him in some experimental, episodic Hong Kong film. I always enjoy Kaneshiro’s performances.

Last September when I first arrived in Japan I noticed a poster for “Returner“. I was willing to fork over the major cash to watch it on the big screen, but I didn’t really know anyone who was willing to plunk down the usual fifteen dollars. Students heard of it but the 3-nensei thought I was kidding.

This week, Fuji-kun at Tahara JHS lent me his personaly copy, the 2-disc special edition. I finally got around to sitting with it tonight - no Yakyuudori (I’ve had my fill for the week).

“Returner” is stylish with fairly two-dimensional characters, but is entertaining and fun-cheese. In other words, it’s like watching a comic book or piece of manga come alive.

The title is not so much about our protagonist Miyamoto (Takeshi Kaneshiro) but more about Milly (Ann Suzuki), who is sent from the future to save the earth from pending, extra-terrestrial doom. It doesn’t sound original, but that really isn’t the point to critique here. My point was to enjoy the film after a week of too much yakitori and surprise classes. And I had a good time watching. The characters are likeable, there’s a good bit of humor and the antagonist of the film, Mizoguchi, is like watching an anime villain come to life. It’s wonderful.

“Returner” was the perfect movie to watch this evening. After the burn of “Tokyo Sora” and “Bounce Ko Gals”, I found this flick to be a fun romp. I sat around to load up the 2nd disc, which was of course the extras DVD. From what I could gather, the original title of the film was “Buddy” and was later changed to “Juvenile NEXT” - director Takashi Yamazaki’s first feature was titled Juvenile and had similar themes.

I read the user comments for the film over at IMDb and I do have to say this: compared to other Japanese cinema I have seen, something like “Returner” is good fun/value in their ranks. In addition, what’s original anymore really and why compare foreign films to Hollywood all the time?

People rant on about how “Returner” copies the Matrix. True with some visual effects sequences, but aspects of the Matrix copied from Japanese animation. Timing and lots of extra money gave the Wachowski’s the edge to do “bullet time” first and do it well. I’m sure several thousand people were thinking about it in their own stories beforehand.

Fuji-kun is responsible over the past year for letting me borrow two anime features in addition to this weeks item: “Patlabor the Movie 2″ and “WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3″. Though not subtitled, I watched them also for aesthetics (director Mamoru Oshii always manages to arrest me in his films’ visuals). Thankfully, “Returner” featured english subtitles.

Last month I told Fuji that I was going back to the U.S. I asked him right afterward why he was sad about it. That is, there will be another ALT after me after all.

He told me that we shared the same interests. It also got pretty neat - Fuji-kun lends me “Patlabor the Movie 2″ and I turn out to love the music, thus burning him a copy of the movie’s soundtrack that I would later buy. Same for “Patlabor the Movie 3″. Maybe he’ll get a copy of the soundtrack for “Returner” too.

In any case, Thursday was good. Redeeming entertainment, an actually-decent 3-nensei class today and time to rest up.

Heard yesterday:
Tim: Shingo’s hair isn’t blonde anymore, it’s dark.
Amber: Are you sure? It’s silver.
Tim: Not when I saw him last night on SMAP bistro.

—
Our bi-weekly ALT meeting took place, as usual, this afternoon. We’re granted the luxury of leaving school a little before lunch time to head home, accomplish an errand or two and then go to the meeting to discuss our past two weeks at school.

Many expressed their opinions of the current scheduling system. Many didn’t like the practice of switching schools almost every week while others didn’t mind it at all. It was good to see the mixed opinions.

Afterwards I walked back towards home and picked up some beverages at the grocery store, reaping the reward of payday. Soon after, Cayce came by to manage his most recent digital stills so that he could burn them onto CD-R using my trusty laptop.

“It’s my birthday.”
“You’re lying,” I said, after feeling the burn of two nights in a row of Yakyuudori.
“Nope. I’m serious.”

While he spent a bit more time placing his pictures into desktop folders I knocked out in bed for a good twenty minutes. Soon we were on a bus to Yakyuudori. My third straight day.

I’m glad I went. Koichi brought out some Asti “Gancia” wine, now a favorite (and I didn’t like wine very much beforehand). He also brought out a small cake. Celebrations indeed. It was, once again, regrettable that I did not bring my camera with me. Thankfully Cayce had his own Powershot - a digital Elph that was just as good and smaller than my camera. So we took snaps at various portions of the evening.

Yoshiko came by - Koichi summoned her by cel. So we chatted it while she came just to stop by and say hi. Her new accessory, a pair of cute glasses, fit her well. Eventually I was talking to her while Cayce was talking to two elementary school english teachers, one woman who spoke exceptional english.

Eventually the night was over. Cayce and I parted as he went towards the station to catch his train home. The two teachers that headed out also parted. One went with Cayce to the station and the other joined me on the bus home, as she had the same route.

The young woman not only spoke perfect English, but she was pretty open about her past and just life in general. Even when we all were at Koichi’s just fifteen minutes before she was discussing heartbreaks, the ambiguities of men she dated, what have you.

As the bus approached my destination, Kanada 2-chome, she continued asking questions about men in general. She wanted answers.

“I’m not sure,” I nodded. “It really depends on the guy.” With that I slipped my bus card into a slot, removed it once the proper amount was withdrawn, and walked off the bus to my apartment just five minutes away.

My friend KJ Locci was talking about a scene from a film and said, “It’s so provincial.” I had no idea what the term meant and he explained it to me. This had to be years ago.

This evening, a friend in New York apologized about her terrible e-mail habits. I said half-sarcastically, “Yes I know. You and most everyone else, I’m getting used to it, growing a callous. I’m kidding.”

I’d like to think that my reliance on e-mail now as the most important form of communication is provincial to me. I also think that it’s safe to say that it’s even moreso true when the deepest conversations are not deep at all (instead, repeats of self introductions and the same topic over and over).

I thought back to when I was a high school freshman at an international school in Bangkok, Thailand. I never had a problem because I was still speaking to my peers in English.

So if you know me and you send me an e-mail, you’re doing something amazingly significant. The term lifeline really comes to mind right about now.

Amber is a fellow Cancerian. This evening was Jon’s birthday so we all met up to wish him the best as he blew out the flame from his own lighter - we had no cake.

Today was rage day, an afternoon where I revealed my more serious side to students who would not give way to the teacher. Actually, this is really common with 3-nensei.

It’s crazy to think that just two months ago the 2nd year students moved onto being 3rd year students with a new seriousness to their lives. Maybe a sudden rush of juku (cram school) or something, I don’t know. They also find themselves comfortable with igoring teachers. This time was the first time in a long time that I had to show them the serious James face ™.

While trying to explain a game to the kids, a few of them talked above me. It got to the point where I couldn’t explain our activity to the rest of the class without raising my voice. Thankfully just walking by them proved helpful. During the activity, all was good. But as the class ended with Morizono-sensei’s usual “Owarimasu!” (class finished), the group again would not stop talking.

“HEY,” I said, loudly. “BE QUIET”.

I revealed to them a very serious face. A very “you kids really need to know your place” glare. The classroom became quiet. The kids turned around and knew that I wasn’t going to have it today. I was tired.

I’m not usually a disciplinarian. But often things get out of hand. Disruptions abound, trying to co-teach a class can be so frustrating. It’s amazing how nice and respectful people are in this country when some of these kids are just unbelievable. It’s like they’ll talk amongst themselves audibly even when trying to teach a lesson. I know for a fact that this happens to ALTs all over the country.

Today I had to do something about it.

After school I met up with Alex for kaitenzushi, and we went on a rant session. Kids seeing the ALT as a person to mess around with, kids turning off their ears when english is spoken in the classrom (i.e., kids will say they don’t understand even though we explained the game three times in ultra-slow english. The list goes on and on.

Even more frustrating is the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) who will not plan. Though it’s only Tuesday, I’ve been asked to “think of anything” for 3-nensei classes with a one or two hour notice in advance. Alex has it worse: sometimes he has no idea until fifteen minutes before class. And we’re supposed to be effective team teachers in this situation? It’s no wonder all we can do is whip up games with a time window like that.

It’s just one bad day that will pass. But I did preach this to Alex and Dion at separate times - we don’t need mid-year conferences about what to teach to kids. We need a serious round table discussion between ALTs and JTEs. Trim the fat: the serious problem is the relationship, lack of communication and planning time between ALT and JTE.

I was going to spend the evening rested after that when Jon called. I told him I already ate.

“I’m gonna have to play my Jewish guilt card on you. You ready?” he asked.
“Oh no… whatcha got.”
“It’s my birthday.”

That explains why I went to Yakyuudori, despite drinking almost a full bottle of Umeshu singlehandedly and having a mild hangover in the morning. This evening was ultra-moderative drinking and chit chat with Amber about my future plans back home. San Francisco is not ruled out either. She was pushing me to go since she’s from the bay area.