Surviving winter in rural Japanese classrooms

I always know when I haven't been updated my blog often enough by the fact that I have to re-enter my log in details (which I have just done) and by the hints that come from family members (usually a sister who has nothing better to do at "work" than check every one's blogs!). So apologies yet again for not writing more lately.....
Yesterday I spent the entire day trying to clean up the house a bit so that I could hang up the Christmas decorations so they wouldn't just blend into the background of junk lying around all over the place. Yesterday the children also woke up early excited about opening their first present in the advent calendar Like last year the excitement kind of wore off quickly when they were rewarded with toothbrushes rather than the chocolate they were imagining. Today they were back to being happy though with two round chocolates... Little do they know that this year I have outdone myself and not only are there toothbrushes, toothpaste, chopsticks, straws (don't ask) in there, but there are also knickers and socks! Nothing like practical presents to start the Christmas celebrations!
Along with the Christmas preparations, December also represents the first of the cold months here in Japan. Frosts are regular now and although the days are really warm the nights are getting really cold. Because we have a wood burner this cold doesn't worry us too much, but going to school and teaching is a different matter! The room in the photo is my "English Classroom" that I get to use when I am teaching at one of the schools. As you can see we have no desks or chairs so that we can play lots of games and really get the kids moving around. If you look very closely you will also see that there is no warm radiator system running the length of the classroom to keep us warm. In fact there is no heating in this classroom at all - which is reasonably typical at country schools in Japan. Often they will bring out a kerosene "stove" later in the year, but for now all the students cram over to the side closest to the window in an attempt to warm themselves in the sun. Fortunately Japan has developed some other ways to keep warm in these situations, the most common is wearing your jacket all day - inside and out. Hats and gloves are also common.... Another great invention is the "hand warmer". For those that don't know about these it is a little pack of "something" that when you shake up and down a few times it causes some kind of chemical reaction (as you can see I really know the details of these things very well) that makes the contents heat up and stay hot for about 24 hours. Most of the children have them in their pockets and whenever the cold gets too much for them they just hold them for a bit and warm up their fingers. They now also have ones that are designed for putting in your shoes, ones with adhesive bits for sticking on your back etc. Great things - except when they burst in your trousers... which is what happened to one boy in class the other day! A big mess to clean up and a bit of scratching for the rest of the day.

Chicken house beginning

Construction has finally begun on our chicken house and I never want to see a level again in my life! When we arrived back from New Zealand in April we (or probably me more than anyone) had big plans of making a chicken coop within one month. It is now November and we finally have half of one!
In Japan they talk a lot about personalities being linked to your blood type. My husband and I (along with our children) are all type O. According to one website that means that we are all: agreeable, sociable and optimistic as well as vain, rude and dominant. Correct on many counts! So, I guess you are wondering what any of that has to do with making a chicken house... If Japanese ways of thinking regarding blood types are correct then my husband and I should go about things in basically the same way..... which is one reason why I don't think much of Japanese theories regarding blood types! With regard to building things I am very much a "make it up as you go along and don't worry about planning" type of person and my husband is the exact opposite... everything has to be drawn to scale before you can even think about picking up a hammer and hours and hours of thought has to go into all the possible problems that could occur before anything is actually begun - resulting in very little actually being done! During construction I figure as long as it stands up it is fine (slap four poles into the ground, throw some chicken wire around it and voila - a chicken house!), but my husband has to have everything completely level and therefore spends hours fiddling with things until they are perfect. I'm sorry, but I really don't think the chickens will care if their coop is not exactly straight! As I just said to my brother "I don't know how many times I stomped off and pulled out some weeds viciously this afternoon!"
It also didn't help that it was the big mountain climbing day today so there were hundreds of people climbing the mountain behind our house and offering advice about the construction process (the garden is right opposite the mountain car park). Anyway, in summary the chicken house is now half completed and it is very straight. Here's hoping we have some more fine weather next weekend so we can finish it off and get some chickens in there before the year 2011!

Matchbox car

I have a new car. It is only for a few days while my car is getting fixed (I love the Japanese custom of giving you a car free of charge to use while you are having repairs done), but it is giving me the chance to experience one of Japan's wonders.... the "Kei car". "Kei" literally means "light" and it is definitely that! I feel a little like I am sitting directly on the ground and as my daughter has discovered - she is taller than it is.... she is only 8 years old!
Kei cars are subject to lower taxes than regular cars and can be distinguished by their yellow number plates. According to wikipedia people couldn't afford big cars and the taxes that they required after world war two so to promote the growth of the car industry, as well as to offer an alternative delivery method to small business and shop owners, kei car standards were created. Although over the years the size restrictions of kei cars has changed it is currently... maximum length - 3.4m, maximum width - 1.48m, maximum height 2m, maximum displacement 660cc.
Initially I was very impressed when I went to fill it up with petrol and the total bill only came to 2,000 yen (when I fill mine it always costs more than 7,000 yen), but after driving it around today I discovered that it also uses quarter of a tank on the way to work and back!
I guess after driving my box for a few days I will be happy to have my big beast of a car back.....

Survival

Oops - I started this entry a few days ago and completely forgot about it... As I think I mentioned in my last entry, life has been a little crazy around here for the last week or so. In summary... Tuesday morning - teaching at school followed by a meeting till 3:30pm. Tuesday night we had 7 guests to eat and 4 guests to stay. Wednesday morning - fed the guests staying then raced to school for the first of 2 days of English demonstration lessons before racing the kids to swimming. "Featured" in the newspaper with one of the classes - got very frustrated by the write up as it looks like I was the main feature of the class where as in truth the Japanese home room teachers did all the preparation, planning, directing etc. and I was just there to support them. Just another grizzle......
On Thursday I survived all the demonstration classes and meetings afterwards about them then taught at a kindergarten on Friday before driving 2 hours to do a "talk" with a group of older people in Hita from 7pm. 2 hours of talking and then another 2 hours home (you do the time calculations) and I was ready for my weekend! Saturday morning I taught English then Saturday night we went to a basketball game because my son was doing marching as part of the half time entertainment. My children have only ever been to two basketball games, but as my daughter said... Mum, no matter where in the world we are the team we are supporting loses.... Oita isn't exactly the strongest basketball team in Japan!
Sunday was a day of rest! As was Monday.... and Tuesday afternoon..... sorry a bit of a boring report, but as the weather cools down (snow is forecast for today) there should be more inside hours typing away and catching up properly with things here.

Half time report

Before I left to go and teach at school at 9am this morning I had already made muffins, a banana cake, made a huge pot of curry, fed two guests breakfast, had a shower and managed to eat some breakfast myself too. I finally got home at about 3:30pm after having a meeting straight after school and we now have 7 guests for dinner tonight (as well as our family) - fortunately only 4 of them are staying the night!
The principal at school also begged me today to do a workshop tomorrow for about 20 teachers who are coming to view the class from hell - who the school has wisely decided is just too hellish to be an example for their school... the teachers have already been invited so they needed a quick solution. Yippee - I can hardly wait!
Anyway, this season is pretty good for having guests as meals can be huge pots of vegetables (last night...) and huge pots of curry (tonight) and most guests leave full, warm and happy! Last night's guests were from America and joined the hiking/cycling tour today. They were great - happy to help with the cutting of the vegetables, the entertaining of the children etc. They even helped to clean up our liquor cupboard a bit! They are staying again tonight with the additional extras so hopefully it will be a reasonably relaxing night before another early start tomorrow. On that note I'd better go and make some big salads... fortunately there are plenty of veges in the garden!

Dad's day at kindy

Today was "Dads day" at my son's kindergarten. Each year the kindergarten organises a couple of days where the fathers can come along and play games with the children. Unfortunately today our family's "Dad" had to work so I put on my trousers and deep voice and became Dad for the day. Despite the fact that it was raining it was actually quite a lot of fun. We started by pretending to be sweet potatoes and the children had to pull us out of the ground - tickling us to get us out fully. We also became roller coasters, trains and finally human skittles in a game of full on dodgeball inside the small hall. The morning was topped off by an arm wrestling competition... fortunately only the real fathers had to take part in that! It was good to have an excuse to do nothing but play with the kids - too often there are too many things to do at home and therefore playing is limited to a few games at night etc.
I keep thinking that this year will be my final year of kindergarten events (my son starts school in April), however the other day the head of the kindergarten somehow took my "definitely no - sorry" to mean "sure why not" and it looks like I will be a member of the kindergarten board of directors from December until I can convince them otherwise..... can hardly wait to start that duty!

Image versus reality

Many people seem surprised when I talk about the behaviour of children in Japanese elementary schools in this area (I say "this area" as I know that there are some schools in Japan which definitely don't fit into the same category and I don't want to give people the wrong impression....). Before I came to Japan my image of schooling here was that the students were really well behaved - so well behaved that they were almost like robots. After about a day of being in Japanese classrooms this image was totally gone and the new one was more of chaos. Today totally confirmed this. I have been teaching at one elementary school two to three mornings a week for the last 6 months or so and one class in particular has been going from bad to worse. When I say that I am teaching I am actually more in an advisory role now and the Japanese teacher prepares the class and then I just help out and give advice at the end and therefore have no input in terms of discipline etc. Next week 4 of the classes have to do demonstration lessons in front of members of the community, the board of education and teachers from other schools in the area. For the last few weeks I have been hinting to the principal and vice principal that there is no way that one class in particular should be doing this.... they don't listen to a word the teacher says, they are physically fighting for most of the lesson and if anyone dares to ask them a question they basically tell you to "piss off".... yip this is an elementary school in Japan!
Anyway, to cut a very long story a little short, today the principal and vice principal both sat in on the lesson and both were almost in tears at the end of it thinking that this class was going to be a model for the school next week (the children have no respect for either the principal or vice principal and laugh openly in their faces if they dare to question their behaviour)..... I had had enough by the end and was so sick of being basically spat at that I sent two girls out into the corridor, who thought that was wonderful and spent the rest of the class wandering around the school being chased by the vice principal. Apparently the class is the same for every lesson (not just English) and the teacher (a man in his 40s) is not coping particularly well... big surprise! Unfortunately he didn't bother to tell anyone that he has been having so much trouble with the class until it was really too late..... I think a parents meeting is scheduled for tomorrow!
Just thought I'd let you know about the joys of teaching in Japan..... in case anyone is thinking of doing it! I have to go back again tomorrow too.... can hardly wait!

Imomochi making

Today was one of the big events on the kindergarten PTA calendar - sweet potato cake making.... Last week the children went and dug the sweet potatoes and with some additional purple and orange ones from our house about 15 of us made over 500 tri-coloured sweet potato cakes using two different recipes (a long story behind that which is not worth repeating here - related to the pissed off story below!). The children helped to shape some of them before they were steamed and put into big trays for delivery to the local school, a rehabilitation center, into their stomachs etc.
Fortunately all went well and we were finished about 2 hours earlier than last year. On the other hand unfortunately all went well and therefore last year's chairperson got pissed off at the end (last year it didn't go well at all....) and ended up writing me an e-mail as soon as she got home about the fact that I hadn't given any of the leftover vegetables to the kindergarten, but distributed them to the parents instead. Unfortunately for her that was a load of rubbish as I had already given over half the vegetables that the parents had donated initially to the kindergarten the day before because I knew we wouldn't need them. Another long story, but just thought I'd add a little "pissed off" message to get it off my chest! Of course I wrote her a wonderful thankful e-mail in reply - I try not to make too many enemies! It's been a long week and it is only Wednesday!

Where should I start????

Sorry for being "off the air" for a couple of weeks. For those who didn't know, I was showing a group of 10 New Zealanders some parts of Japan that normal "tourists" can't access - as well as a few that were teeming with tourists! The things we did are too numerous to write about here, but all in all I think we had a pretty good 10 days - it was fun for me to show them around and as always I was reminded of the kindness of all the people here in Japan. We had some wonderful host families who looked after them for 4 nights and then there were so many other great people who helped to make the trip possible. If anyone is reading this blog that helped out - thank you!
Temples, shrines, schools, scarecrows, Buddhas, food, food and more food, trains, buses, ferries, museums, rice harvesting, Samurai houses, steps, steps and more steps, meditation, hospitals, green tea, stone carvings, Japanese lunch boxes, hot springs, atomic bomb memorials, floating shrines, futons, early mornings, gardens, geisha, revolving sushi, a bit of "Grandad time" and much much more. We even managed to meet Prince Charles and Camilla! That's right, I managed to convince him to come to Nara at exactly the same time we were visiting and even though we didn't get to shake their hands we did get a wave - pity my picture is out of focus!

All in all a fun 10 days then back to work today.... I'm looking forward to the long weekend this weekend!

Weekend update

Another weekend has disappeared! I was woken on Sunday morning by my husband's uncle who decided he was going to make me a fence for the top garden. After being quoted thousands of dollars by another company I jumped at the chance to use some free materials that he had lying around work and the end result is that we now have a fence! It is a bit taller than I had originally imagined, but it means I will be able to grow some tall things against it without having them grow all over the street - like they have been until now! Another job ticked off the list.

The next job for the weekend was to dig up some more sweet potatoes and the kids kept demanding I make them sticky cake things with them so I became somewhat of an expert. I grew purple and orange ones this year so they look very "pretty"... if you like sticky sweet potato cakes!

While I was doing all that my daughter had a morning at school making an "eco bag". A special calligraphy teacher came and they were encouraged to write their favorite Chinese character on the bags. I sent my husband along in my place.... drawing pictures and writing Japanese is not exactly one of my strong points!

Rice harvesting also started yesterday, but I forgot to take any photos.... maybe tomorrow!

International Relations

Anyone who read this entry's title and who also reads Katy's blog don't get excited... I am not talking about the same international relations that she does! Our international relations were a lot less exciting, but interesting all the same. Last night we had a group of 4 people come to stay who are studying the Japanese movement called "one product, one village" which is where each town supposedly works together to produce one product (like mandarins, mushrooms, beef etc.) really well. It is working in some areas, but not so well in others as they are discovering.
Anyway, the group that stayed with us included a mayor from the Philippines, and city workers from Laos, Thailand and Indonesia. Although they didn't arrive till after 7pm and left before 8am it was still interesting to talk with them about the differences between their countries and Japan - although the children had a bit of a hard time understanding their English....
Everything seems to be calculated in terms of Dad's trip here at the moment - so in those terms this was the last group of guests before he arrives next week. Right now I'm off to do some kindy teaching and then to a different kindergarten for meetings all afternoon.... the last before Dad comes!

Break?

Today started with me taking my son to kindergarten and being mobbed by two of the teachers and having to sing a solo version of "We wish you a merry Christmas" and "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" (I think they want to sing them at the end of year production) ..... Now anyone who knows me well knows that I don't sing - especially unaccompanied and especially not in front of people. But, this being Japan I found my self doing it and getting a round of applause for my efforts - a different kind of way to build up your ego and start the day!
After that I headed to my "real job" - which I don't actually do that often now - facilitating an outdoor education program. Today was a lot of fun with an international group from a local university. I think there were about 13 different nationalities in the group of 30 - making it very interesting when they started doing the climbing wall and everyone was yelling words of support to each other in many different languages. We discovered what means "go for it" in one language means "milk" in another...... I'm not sure how encouraged someone would be if they heard someone shouting "milk, milk, milk" at them while they were half way up the wall! I joined them for a delicious barbecue afterwards so it was a nice break in some ways.
Back to teaching at school tomorrow... the three worst classes in the school crammed into one morning. I can hardly wait!

We survived!

We all survived Sunday! I was up at 4:45am to make the lunch and breakfast for the guests who had stayed on Saturday night. By 7:40 I was out of the house to take my daughter to school then back the other direction to take my son to kindergarten (he was doing marching at a different sports day) then back to school again in time for the opening speeches etc. at the school sports day at 8:30am. By then I thought I had done enough for the whole day, but no... I still had to participate in the "catch the ball in the basket" game, the "eat the marshmallow from a tray of flour game" as well as hold the goal tape, feed the kids (and grandmother) lunch and get back home in time to teach some English.... In the middle of it my husband arrived back after successfully completing his 100km walk (they left at 2pm and he finished at about 6:15am so you can do the maths...). He did a great job, but spent the rest of the day shaking and sleeping. I think he is still a bit sore today, but definitely on the mend!
My son got to meet all his new classmates for next year - a total of 7 boys and 3 girls will be in his class. He is the big one at the back that is not wearing the bright orange shorts....
For anyone who doesn't know what a Japanese sports day is like please check last year's blog entry: Sports Day 2007
Trev & Gill - the number of people who asked me if you were here again this year was too difficult to keep track of! You definitely made an impression..... and were missed by us this year.

After the sports day the preparations for my daughter's birthday party began - fortunately I am not very good at throwing things away so I had plenty of Halloween decorations that I made about 10 years ago to stick around the place and a few really big pumpkins in the garden to use for decorations. My daughter wanted a number 8 cake, which made life simple. Apart from number 1 I think number 8 has to be the easiest cake possible. She had a really good day, but was pretty zonked by the end of it. I must admit I was also in bed by 8:30pm, which meant I had to get up early this morning to prepare for today's classes. Roll on November!

100km journey

This afternoon my husband set out on a journey - a 100km journey - a 100km journey on foot - a nonstop 100km journey - a nonstop 100km journey on foot through the night.
Fortunately he is not alone. In fact there are over 2,500 people participating in this annual event which sees them walk all the way from Yukuhashi to Beppu - a total of 100km (bet you didn't guess that!). He has wanted to do it for a few years now, but has always had work on that day. So today he finally managed to do it (well actually he is still walking right now so I guess I can only say that he has finally managed to start it). He is equipped with every kind of thing imaginable to help him in his quest - little containers with separators for chunks of sugar, origami salt holders, fancy water bags, very stylish Lycra clothing etc. Here's hoping it all aids him enough to get him to the finish line.
Tonight we also have some more guests - a really nice family from Germany. Again they are hiking and biking - too much energy for me!
Tomorrow is going to be a huge day.... sports day in one place, marching in a different place, English lesson - oh and of course I get to make the stupid lunch box all over again... at the same time as making the guests' breakfast! If I'm still alive by tomorrow night I'll tell you how it went. If I'm not still alive you can blame it on the door .....

The forbidden door

This morning I walked out our kitchen door directly on to the deck, walked across the lawn, through the new hole in the hedge, down the new steps and put the compost in the compost bin - all in my pajamas. It felt great! Now that might sound a little strange to some of you, but I have been married now for almost 10 years and this is the first time I have been able to do this. In fact, it was the first time in more than 10 years that the kitchen door has been opened. Why? Because Japanese people tend to be very superstitious and even if it means a lot of inconvenience that tend to believe what fortune tellers etc. tell them. This was the case with my husband too - after his first marriage ended he took the plans of his house to a fortune teller and they told him that the failure of his marriage was because the placement of 2 doors within the house was incorrect. One is a door in the kitchen and one is a door that leads directly from the bathroom outside. For the first few years I decided to go along with this and didn't even open the window in the door in the kitchen (40 degrees outside in summer... imagine the kitchen with limited ventilation!), but last night I had had enough and decided to ask yet again if I could remove all the things from in front of the door (it had become a convenient place to dump anything and everything that wouldn't fit in the cupboards) and make it possible to go directly from the kitchen outside. I don't know if my husband just wasn't listening properly or if he has started to question the original fortune teller, but I was given permission to do so and spent till about midnight rearranging things - the result.... a much lighter, much bigger kitchen. I'm hoping that another result is not that the world will end tomorrow.... if it does, I apologize - it was my fault, I opened the door.......

Garden reform part 1

When we came back from New Zealand in March I decided I was sick of waiting for things to be done so I brought back some money that I made from a building investment and made a list of the things that I wanted to get done this year.

1. Curtains for the cottage - tick
2. Deck for the cottage - tick
3. Table for the "dining room" - tick
4. Fence for the top garden - not quite
5. Chickens - maybe next century
6. Pizza oven - see "chickens"
7. Redo front garden - now underway!

I had visions of reshaping the front garden myself, but I know I will never find the time to do it so I have ended up getting a company in to do it and build me some stairs down to my big vegetable garden at the same time. They started today and although they remind me a bit of a small family of gnomes (you have to be here to imagine it...) they are doing a good job and it should all be finished in a couple of days. Hopefully more progress photos tomorrow!

What a waste!

I know you have all been holding your breath... did I get up early and make the lunch box? Did it rain? Was the sports day postponed? The answer to all the above was... yes! The worst possible scenario happened - I decided the rain may not be bad enough to cancel the sports day so got up before 5am and started making the silly lunch box. Then at 6am the phone went and... that's right the sports day was postponed till next week. AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH! It meant there was plenty for breakfast and lunch and I managed to use some of it for dinner too - for the guests that we had to stay. Another really nice couple doing the hike and bike - this time from Maryland, America. I guess looking at it in a positive light it means I have had a practice run for next week!

Today my daughter had a day off school (in lieu of going on Saturday) so we went to do some extra research on the town of Yufuin. I will take my father's group there at the end of the month so I wanted to make sure I didn't get them too lost! One of the problems with Japanese travel is that in order to see some of the best places you really have to be able to read some Japanese. Today we went to a great hot spring bath that proves the point. When you get in the gate you are given a map in Japanese, instructions in Japanese and let loose in a beautiful area to find your way to the hot spring that suits you best. There are private baths for those who are a little shy or wonderful, big open air baths with wonderful views of the mountain for those who don't mind baring their bits to the rest of the world. There is even a mixed bath for the very brave, but we didn't quite make it there! Of course the problem is which door should you go in? The signs in the pictures show whether it is the female or male bath..... I guess it is lucky that I will be there to help out with this group!

Carp feeding was the highlight of the outing for my daughter. You can never have enough food to satisfy them! You can work out whether I am talking about the carp or my daughter....

What would you do?

Today was my daughter's eighth birthday. We celebrated with make your own sushi and a pretty poor excuse for a cake. Not that she was complaining... in fact she had no idea I had made it so her eyes just about burst out of her head when she saw the candles. Today she had to go to school (yes I know it is Saturday, but they needed to prepare for the sports day) so she got a hand made lunch, with a surprise birthday card in it. The joys of having children! We are having her party on the 13th, hence the pretty poor effort today!
Right now I am in a very big dilemma. Tomorrow is the big school sports day (for anyone new to the blog please check out last year's here: Sports Day 2007). Despite the fact that we all went this afternoon to help put up the tents the weather forecast has changed significantly and there is now a 100% chance of reasonably heavy rain from the morning - according to one weather station and a 90% chance of rain from the afternoon according to another. If the first one is correct then the chance of the sports day being postponed is pretty high. If the second one is correct then the chances of it being postponed are pretty low. So... do I wake up at 5am to make the stupid lunch box, or do I take my chances and sleep till 7am then if it is actually on race to the convenience store, buy 5 lunch boxes and take all the bits out of them and put them in one of my own boxes and pretend I was up all morning making it? It doesn't help that there are guests staying tomorrow night too, so I should be getting organised for them too. I think I'll have another cup of tea and ignore everything for a bit - avoidance is a great thing!