Measuring my life out with お握り

With September nearly over, I've managed to survive my first month as a One-shot ALT.  I've seen nearly 12 schools, and have visited the larger schools at least 2-3 times (sometimes working at least 5 classes with class sizes from 35-40 kids each).  Yesterday was one of those 5 class kind of days, but today was easier as it was at a smaller island school.  Still, having to do my song and dance back to back for 3 different classes can take quite a bit out of me, particularly when I've had to tell them my favorite Japanese food 5 thousand times. Someone today suggested I try たこ焼き but unfortunately it's made of wheat flour.  At the end of a long week of trying my hardest to impress these kids, my brain sometimes feels like it's made of wheat flour.

The cabin

So when I'm not working for the weekend, it is the weekend (and last weekend was one of the best yet).  We headed up to Ibaruma on Saturday and stayed overnight at a luxurious cabin (and I'm serious when I use the word luxurious).  It was fantastic.

The mountains near the cabin at night

And it is also the place that we're going to shoot a short horror movie as a Halloween project to show to my classes.  So I've been busy creating a treatment and a script (and researching some of the ways in which we can shoot this DV as cheaply as possible and still produce acceptable results).  Anyone who has experience with this, feel free to get in touch with me.

Apart from this, I've just been thinking about what I will be doing next year at this time.  My job has already been canceled as there are cutbacks to this program.  Pretty soon, I'll have to make the decision to renew and see where I am assigned to next year (and go through the whole moving process again -- selling my car, furniture, etc).  Or, I can not renew and venture out on my own as I have a work visa with a three year duration. Or, I can return to the US and try to find some sort of work there...I have options, so I am not worried.

We shall see.

Notes on a birthday (marginalia)

Every year around this time I make a long list of goals and wishes for myself.  I do not do this at New Years like most people do, I do this in September as it is my birthday month.  This year, I'll post some of the notes I've written down.  Some of it may not make sense or may be in fragments...like I said it's just for me, but I am willing to share it with you as well.

Material goods:  100% Argan oil, tulsi tea, interesting books (please send me suggestions or some in the mail), Sony Vegas Professional Editing Software, acupressure/acupuncture session/massage, new boots. 

Things to do: Finish older art/writing projects, start new ones, snorkeling, scuba diving, climbing Mt. Omoto, kayaking/traveling across Iriomote island, traveling around mainland Japan(<--- !!!Priority!!!), maybe Taiwan, Indonesia, Korea, China and Thailand.  Mongolia if I have the chance.  Learn Japanese to conversational fluency (and the ability to read at a functional level!), find opportunities to practice my German as well.  Return to Germany and England to visit friends there. Take it easy, enjoy things.   Maintain good health.  

Most important:  Respect, empathy, tolerance, happiness, joy, gratitude, appreciating my family and friends,  approaching others with an open heart and open mind, excitement/joie de vivre, genuine curiosity (genuine behavior in general) and kindness.  Graciousness.  Meeting and making new friends, retaining current friendships, rekindling older friendships.  Figuring my life out or not figuring my life out and enjoying it anyway.  Love.

Thank you :) 

The Spider and the Alligator

I have a jumping spider in my apartment.  This morning it came in through the front door as I was walking out.  I thought that it was a flying, or some other type of fast moving, insect. But this evening I saw it in my kitchen sink before it jumped away.  This is not going to happen.  This spider is not making a home in my apartment.

In other news today, I taught 1st grade (equivalent to 7th grade though they act more like 4th grade) and had a blast.  Their minds are all over the place, but they were trying so hard to listen and having a blast asking me questions.  I was doing my self-introduction spiel, explaining where I was from and that we have alligators there, when they became absolutely fixated on the idea of these alligators roaming throughout the land, hiding in people's kitchen sinks, bathtubs, walking around with top hats and canes, and who knows what else.  I then tried to move on to tell them where else I had lived and told them I went to university in NYC.  They were still obsessing over alligators "wani" when one of the students asked,  "wait, why did she move to NYC?"  And another student answered back, "to escape from the alligators."

I love my job.

The rise of Aki (my life as an assistant language teacher)

Since arriving, I have been sorting my life out, writing about my experiences and studying Japanese (I need to study much more!) and just trying to fit in as much as a foreigner can in a small town on a remote island. I am only 2 weeks into my career as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) and it has already proven to be amazing.  I have a job that is known as the "One Shot ALT" which means that I am a visiting co-teacher in the schools and I teach at over 21 schools in a region of Japan called the Yaeyama islands.  I visit 中学校 or Chuu gakkou (Jr. High Schools) throughout this area, some of which I only visit every other month, and I meet and teach many students.  There are some drawbacks to this of course.

I will not get to see a steady progression of English language skills that my students are learning.  I will probably not get to know any of them too well either (though there are some memorable names and faces already in my mind from many of the schools).  That is a difficult thing to deal with for me as I think each of these students of mine are special and interesting (even the ones who seem to not give a crap about English).  I know for a fact that these are the people that I am going to learn the most from this year (along with the teachers, who will teach me how to teach or how not to...).  By the end of the year, I'll be up to date on J-Pop (Japanese Pop music), Anime, Manga (I've already learned about One Piece), teenage culture, what's hip and what's not, and, of course, the Japanese language itself (probably slang).

Sayonara/Mensore! (Let's ketchup)

I arrived to teach English in July after spending a week in NYC sorting my life out there.  Throwing away all of the bits and pieces of my life I had left around awaiting my indefinite return was a strange experience in itself, but throwing out that part of my life knowing that I was embarking on a journey to a life much different from what I had previously known, made my week in NYC very surreal.  I stayed at an affordable hotel just off Union Square in an area where I had once lived while attending NYU.  My time there felt like the closure of a circle of my time in that city and when I took off towards JFK the morning of my departure, I knew I was saying goodbye to it for good.  Before my family and friends become worried about whether I'm going to become a "lifer" in Japan and never return, just realize that I know I will return to the US and I know I will not move back to NYC, no matter how much I love that city.  It is what it is.  

Sayonara NYC

In the Eye of the Storm

Since it has taken me forever to get my act together about this blog, I am utilizing the typhoon as a way to make valuable use of this tropical experience that has sequestered me to my apartment.

Typhoon Fanapi is currently throwing all it has at us and it is stronger than I thought it would be.   So with the winds hurtling objects and the people from Ishigaki still cruising through town (though admittedly there are less cars on the roads now that the eye of the storm is approaching and the winds have picked up to 120mph gusts), I wanted to document what it is like to experience a typhoon.

Since most of those from Florida have experienced hurricanes -- they're the same thing -- I thought I would not be that impressed after all this is merely a category 3, and barely that.  But for me, it's the first storm that has hit directly in a place I lived that is so close to the ocean.  I live a quick 10 minute walk to the port, so the idea of lots of water flooding this island has been on my mind.  I do not have shutters on my sliding glass door or windows, but I am also up on the 4th floor (so flooding will not happen) and they say the glass is reinforced for storms like this.

But let's back up to when I found out about the typhoon.  I was on Iriomote (that's a view from the port of Shirahama, a tiny village on the western side of the Iriomote island), the most beautiful island I've been to as of yet, visiting two of my schools on an overnight stay.

First things first

I have been hesitating about writing about my life in Japan in a blog format.  Don't get me wrong, I have been writing and keeping track of my experiences here so far, but I am not really a blogger.  There are so many blogs about living overseas or teaching English in Japan (there are just way too many blogs in general) and I was not certain I wanted to put another one out there, but I have decided that I'm going to try to make this a space where I can document my time here and share it with those who are interested.  I also kind of want to get away from using Facebook as my point of contact with everyone.

So...here I am living my life in Japan. I'm living in the Yaeyama islands to be exact, which in itself is probably one of the most remote islands of Japan (at least distance wise).  I'm very far away from mainland Japan and even a trip to Okinawa takes at least one hour by jet plane (and not a tiny plane either, a commercial jet).  Someone made a comment recently that not only am I not in Japan, I'm not really even in Okinawa, though the Yaeyamas are part of both Okinawa-ken and Japan.  The people here would identify as Japanese, but I think it is quite different from most of the other areas of this country.

The Yaeyama region is very interesting and I'm really happy to have the opportunity to live here.  It's definitely the inaka, but with the added bonus of it being a tropical paradise island (and since it is a Japanese island, it does not have the economic and social issues that many tropical paradise islands have in this world, ie extreme poverty coupled with large amounts of wealthy tourists to add to the disparity). 

While I love being a city girl and miss not having the opportunity to go see as much theater, film or art as I was used to when living in NY, there are many things here that I find really exciting and lots of cultural traditions that are extremely fascinating. In all honesty, while I lived in NYC, all I could think and dream about was a life less stressful, less mean, less cynical and less aggressive. 

Well, Ishigaki sorts that all out very nicely.  

Here's to a year in the country and a year in paradise!