Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Kindness of Strangers

Went to the greatest city in Japan (reputedly) in the weekend J it was awesome. Not so much the city, but the company – didn't actually get to see much of the city! That'll be the next trip…

But, at the beginning, it was a little stressful. Public Transport in Japan is meant to be one of the best in the world I think, and it seems to be. There are trains and buses and planes all over the place easily - accessible and running most if not all days of the year. Only thing is that I am still grasping this language and tackling a little bit of shyness to speak it even when I can. There are three options to get to Tokyo – by train the whole way; by train and then switching to a cheaper bus, or bus by the whole way. The cheaper way is by far the bus and if I take the train a little further down, I could get the bus later on in the day… So that's what I choose! Getting onto the train was no problem – but the getting off bit freaked me out a tad. I couldn't figure out when I was meant to get off; whether the stop had past or whether it was still coming – talk about on the edge of my seat! I was almost jumping off the train at every stop! I didn't though, and when we pulled into the last stop; every single soul got off the train, so I guessed I would get off and thankfully I was in Iwaki (first note to self: check out the train timetables for names of stops and learn them in Kanji).

Sweet! In Iwaki – not exactly Tokyo, but I kinda felt that I had gotten SOMEWHERE! Hehe. Next, I had to find the bus that was going to Tokyo… I pulled out my trusty Japanese Phrase Book and found a phrase that would help:

"Which Bus/Boat/Plane/Train goes to _ _ _ _ (add City)?"

Perfect! Ahh, I'm invincible, this is gonna be a synch! I got rushed out of Iwaki train station with everyone else – quite a whirlwind that – and spotted a bus depot and a crap load of different bus stops. So I walked in, waited in line and said my awesome little phrase books phrase:

"Konnichi wa… oh (realized I didn't have to say that..) ah… Sumimasen (trying to get attention when the lady at the counter is already sitting in front of me and looking directly at me)… um… Tokyo yuki no bas wa dore desu ka?"

~~ This is when the lady at the counter breaks into full blown Japanese accompanied by hand directions out to the bus stops, pointing at me and her computer (second note to self: never think things will be easy and plan a few steps after the first one)~~

Having no idea what she was on about and realizing that I hadn't even THOUGHT about how I was going to translate anything anyone answered me with; I tried to just say "Arigato Gozaimasu" and sneak away. But low and behold, there was no way she was going to let me do that and continued to talk faster and louder in Japanese – so I just smiled at her and try not to laugh! The poor lady was getting more and more agitated so I decided to show her my ticket in my wallet and she calmed right down; she put me in a seat at the depot and told me a whole lot more Japanese – which seemed to have worked before on me, so, you know, justifiable, and gestured what I was imagining as "Stay, stay, staaaaay…." Haha.

10 minutes before the bus was due to depart, I was kinda getting a bit concerned – I had to figure out what to do to find my bus stop and my Bus! Just then, another person came out and said to me "Tokyo!?", which I completely understood and replied with a "Hai!" and a leap up out of my seat (glancing back at the other lady to see if she was going to start her little "staaaay" dance again). I was taken to a bus and put on it – the driver was spoken to quietly (because, better not let me overhear some more Japanese) and with a 'aahh, so desu neee" from the driver, some nods and bows, I was off onto Tokyo!

Needless to say that when I arrived in Ayase where my cousin lives, we went off to dinner followed by bars and karaoke with a good amount of alcohol to ease me right (third note to self: Beer and Gin don't mix, but Brad and Karaoke do!!). I had a ball the whole weekend and really relaxed, was so awesome to catch up with my cousin and escape from my small town for a bit. The trip back was a lot less action packed, but still had some help from strangers that saw a lost foreigner at the train tracks and directed her to the right train and which station to get off at.

Gotta love the kindness of strangers.

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Sunday, August 26, 2007

English Speech Competition

Woah, now here's a bit of fun for ya!
 
A group of students - I think one from each year 3 class plus one exceptionally bright second year student have been practicing English speeches for a National Speech Contest that will be happening next week. Two of the students are reciting speeches that they have been given. The other two students have their own original speeches they have written.
 
These students are expected to recite these speeches in the contest with perfect pronounciation in English and memorised. They don't seem to know what each sentence means and memorise by familarity of constant recitation and practice. They also memorise actions to go with different parts of their speech - gestures to express the words and entertain. At the competition, they are not aloud to have microphones; therefore practice in voice projection (yelling) also seems to be important.
 
Who, you may ask, helps them with this little but mammoth task for Junior High School Students. Well, JTE's (Japanese Teachers for English) and ALTS (Assistant Language Teachers) - namely me. So for the past three weeks, I have been going to school to listen to these four speeches over and over again correcting any pronounciation problems, supporting the memorisation and helping define what gestures to use. I know the speeches myself off by heart and even have special phrases etched into my brain that echoes through the night well after practice - phrases that the students find particularly difficult. For example:
 
"The day was bright with a slight breeze" simple enough? aha, but your most probably a native English speaker.
Japanese Junior High School Student: "Za day was balight wif a salight bleeze"
Me: "The"
Student: "Za"
Me: "No, The"
Student: "The"
Me: "Good! Bright"
Student: "Blight"
Me: "No, Bright"
Student: "Blight?"
Me: "No, um.. Bri, Bri, Bright"
Student: "Bri, Bri, Blight"
Me: "hmm"
~~So on, and so forth until we get each word sounding right~~
Me: "Okay! lets put it together: The day was bright with a slight breeze"
Student: "Za day was balight wif a salight bleeze"
Me: "oh man"
Student with a puzzled look on their face.
And of course, this is only one of the many sentences. The students practice very hard and they have improved so much - some of them fully succeeding in sounding berry Engalish lol. But the joy doesn't stop there - then comes the gestures. Because the memorisation isn't exactly focused on understanding the speech, rather knowing which words come after which words, the students don't quite understand the complexities of connecting the somewhat interesting gestures that they want to do or have been asked to do with timing. So the gestures for the sentences; "I listened to the music" or "we all danced to the band" are not exactly well timed for speaking the verbs. For example; Standing completely still; "I listened to the music"; then hand to ear, hand down, completely still, continuation of speech. THAT has been hard to break!! Mind you, my Nihongo is crap, so I have to go over the speech myself with gestures to show them how I think it should be timed; and we all know how much of a bumbling idiot I can be, so not the best role model!
 
THEN comes the voice projection practice! I'll leave that up to your imagination to think about what that's like coupled with the other fantastic elements of English Speech Contest!
 
In saying all this, it is rather fun and I've gotten to know these bright students well before school has returned for semester two. They have worked so hard on their speeches and presentation and tomorrow they are going to show off in assembly just how well they are. What's amusing is that I will also be doing a speech - in Japanese. So if I was to take a bet, I'd say the school will be laughing more so at me than them!
 
The contest is on September 4th, so we still have a few practices up our sleeve to create perfection... and miracles do exist.
I think, that this is a link to more information on this contest: http://www.jnsafund.org/en/ although skeptical on whether it is the same competition or if this is an old link.
 
And... wish me luck for my own speech tomorrow!!

Month 1 - Homesickness

Here's a breakdown on the definition of homesickness for me. I've been here for a month.
 
Week 1.
So heartbreaking,
At everyturn, a wave of desperation taking over,
Realising that I am alone without the rocks that I have clung to in this crazy world for so long.
Lying in my apartment with different and unknown objects surrounding me,
Realising this time over again that if the tide began to pull,
I could not rely on those rocks to push me to the surface.
 
Absolutely gutt wrenching and physically turmoiling.
Emotionally desperate for familiarity.
 
 
Week 4.
Contacts been made tentatively.
Teachers with warm smiles and encouraging nods,
Gaijin with understanding encouragement and continual visits.
Finding beautiful wairua instilled within different people that are now surrounding me.
The creation of a suprisingly old relationship within new ans renewed friendships.
The forming of new rocks with whanau from the past. 
 
The realisation that this new place is not unknown, 
The familarities of human kindness and the mutual language of bodies and souls. 
Realising the rocks in my home have neither disappeared nor are unreachable.
 
Homesickness still lives on, but is now settled into a small pocket of my wairua - a constant yearning for my turangawaewae and whanaunga deposited deep within; instead of at every turn. 
 
Ko Patumahoe toku kainga,
engari;
E noho ana ahau i roto Nihon,
mo inaianei.
Ma te wa

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Sado Island and other such entertainment

SADO ISLAND
Took a 'lil trip with other Gaijin from Fukushima-ken to a beautiful island called Sado. It was a lil expenso - quite a bit more than a road trip in Aotearoa, but damn worth it.
If you get a chance to go to the Earth Celebration, I'd recommend it - it is beautiful and my only regret was that we only went to one night of the festival - I couldn't afford any more than that anyway and we spent the rest of our time adventuring other parts of the island.
Earth Celebration = a festival to celebrate and enjoy music and the earth. The concerts were held outdoors walking through temple grounds, up a steep encircling path into a park on a hill. Surrounded by trees and with a very peaceful and respectful crowd all sitting on the grass where they can listen to the sounds of traditional Japanese music (and also some very funky beats with Japanese rhythms). The sky above us, a half yellow moon rising and stars clearly in the sky (but different layout to what I'm used to so, that was kinda, weird) and entertaining musicians on the stage. Some musicians were placid and deep, placing themselves in the middle of the stage with lights directed at them to play their instruments (of which were mainly Japanese, so I couldn't tell you what they were sorry), others were accompanied by dancers in Japanese style acting out to the music in patterns and movements, other musicians still, were dancers and entertainers themselves, dancing and rhythmically moving to the music of their instruments and even their dancing creating the music itself! And I only went to one night of the festival!
Apart from the concert, there were stalls selling some damn good food and clothing and jewellery, and well, actually everything. I wanted to buy a crap load!! but alas, the string on themoney purse must be a little tight for the time being.
The other festival goers were a mixed lolly bag - from other Gaijin (of which was about 50% of the whole crowd I reckon) to Japanese families to Japanese Hippies - who looked very funky and 'down wit it'.
Sado island itself was real sweet, the beaches were not what I had imagined existed here - beautiful beautiful blue clear water with seaweed and an aliveness that scared me. It was too hot to be too precious, and so I braved it with the jelly fish quite a bit and only came out with a few stings from tiny ones. Have to admit and I was a complete sook about the whole jelly fish thing. Not really ever encountered them before and freaked out every time I saw one!
At one beach, a cave and passage way to another side was found and so we braved it (I took a lot of coaxing!) and swam out to water that was so so deep and clear. Found on the other side of the passage a resting place and an area that comes close to being as choice as Wilkies Pools (for those who know it).
We did the tourist thing and found some glass bottom bucket boats and got taken out by Japanese Women, that was fun :) Also tented right beside a big group of Japanese men who decided that the best fun of the evening would be to play on the drums and put masks on and dance to us for quite a while - all in fun and games :)
Had a blast and big ups to the others who took me - the other foreigners in this area are amazing and I don't know what I would do without them!
Next blog, I'll tell you about the English Speech Competition Training and how the sentence "The sun was bright with a slight breeze" might forever be etched into my skull. Am going to see Brad in Ayase this weekend!! yay!!
--
Live. Love. Breathe. xx tj


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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Settling In...

It's been 15 days today and I'm feeling goooooddd!! Man, was I homesick over the first week - just couldn't control the tears or sadness :( But since then I've gotten better and better and now am looking forward to when I start work properly!
 
Have been hangin' out by myself pretty much most days.. Watching videos that previous tenants had left here (some English!) and reading books from the same previous tenants... 
 
Only JUST gotten internet sorted!!! yay! am stoked about that, so now can actually do something (sit on facebook all day and annoy people) productive! 
 
Have been up to Sendai for a day - niiiiccceeee..... choice fashion here mate - about everything goes. Ren n her nighties would fit in like a charm.
 
Checked out the beaches,  not baaaadddd... not Aotearoa styles, but they're nice enough. but don't expect to get a hard out tan man, good for Skin Cancer prevention s'pouse ;)
 
Oh, and Tomioka had a festival for the dead this week - it was wack! lol... dancing and clapping on the streets for about 3 hours... some performers and drummers to get the party started aaaaiiigghhhttt - damn good food stalls. One stall was selling goldfish - it was REAL popular, I hope everyone that got a gold fish has a tank at home and is going to look after them! hmmmm....
 
gotta get down to Tokyo to see Brad and buy me a camera!!!!
 
luff, tj xox

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

I'm here and It's all good!!!

Hey everyone!!
 
I'm in Tomioka and It's all good! just wanted to let you know, I haven't got the inernet at home yet and so can't email or bebo\myspace\facebook at all :( it's killing me! PLUS no cellphone!! drama drama!! lol.
 
But all is well and I'm starting to settle down, had a serious bout of homesickness, but am starting to come right now... I'm emailing off the school computer, but on't really want to do this too much so until I have the net at home, it might be a bit quiet on my pages :) sure that you'll survive though peeps! hehe.
 
Am going to some star festival in Sendai this afternoon with another ALT and have been invited to a Beer Garden party tomorrow night ~ interesting.... hehe...
 
love to all, pray for the internet company to get me sorted please! hehe.. 

Live. Love. Breathe. xx tj