Misadventures in Translation

Welcome to my journal. With this journal and my online web album (http://www.flicker.com/photos/anwooldridge/) you will be able to keep up with what is going on with my life here in Japan.

So, all of you are probably wondering, “What has Adam been up to for the past two months?” Bare with me, and I will give you a fairly brief overview of my stint so far in Japan. I’m sorry for the lengthy post, but I needed to catch up. I would have posted all this much sooner, but I just got the internet at my apartment last week.

August 3 – 5, 2006 was spent doing a Pre-Departure Orientation at the Japanese Consulate in New Orleans. It’s one of the many events in which you get to meet several interesting people and never see them again. The night before leaving, we had a farewell party at the Consular General’s house. Lots of free food and drinks. Here is a picture of me with Consul Sakato and picture of all the new ALT’s from the New Orlean’s Consulate. For the complete Pre-Departure Pictures Click Here

On August 5th, we left the New Orleans Airport at around seven o’clock and flew to Narita Airport outside of Tokyo, Japan.

We then had a three day orientation in Tokyo. We stayed at the Keio Plaze Hotel in the Shinjuku District of Tokyo. This area of Tokyo has the most high-rise buildings in Tokyo. Shinjuku is the home of the Tokyo Government Building – the tallest building in Tokyo. I took many pictures of the Tokyo skyline from the observation deck there. Here are a few photos of the Shinjuku District and the Tokyo Skyline. For the complete Shinjuku photos , Click Here.

This is a picture of Yodobashi Camera. It’s a great electronic store with too many things I can’t afford to buy. It’s 7 floors and a basement of nothing but electronics.

A picture just outside the Shinjuku JR station.

There are too many people in Tokyo…

The gigantic banner used for orientation.

A picture of all the Group B Yamanashi ALT’s. The coworkers of my prefecture.

This is the Tokyo Government Building in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It is the tallest building, but is the second tallest structure. It is 800 feet tall. The Tokyo Tower (a radio tower) is taller than this building.

A picture of Shinjuku Park Tower from the Tokyo Government Building.

This is just a small taste of the urban-sprawl that is Tokyo. The large building on the the left is the Tokyo Opera Tower.

Here is a picture of the Keio Plaza Hotel that I stayed at.

The beginning of my transformation into a Japanese person…

For more pictures of the Tokyo Skyline, Click Here.

On August 9th, I was finally able to go to my new town. It was a nice two hour bus ride from Tokyo to Kofu. We met our Supervisor, Hinori Sakamoto, at the Kofu International Center. Mr. Sakamoto is awesome. He’s 25, so he can easily relate to all the young ALT’s. From Kofu, we drove to Hokuto.

At Hokuto, we went to the city office for a formal welcoming ceremony. After that, there were A LOT of forms to fill out. I had to register as a foreigner, sign contracts, and set-up my electricity, gas, water, cell-phone, insurance, and bank account. It was so much easier with my Japanese experience, but I feel that I would have been fine with out any prior Japanese experience. There are many people in this program who know absolutely no Japanese.

Finally, I went to my house. This is my first driving experience in Japan. I have to make a conscious effort to drive on the left side, but it didn’t take long to adjust to the new style of driving. My house was in the middle of no-where in a mountain. It was a pretty area, but it was too far away from everything. So, I made a decision to move once I got my first paycheck. It’s a good thing payday was only two weeks away. Here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of how rural my house was. For more pictures of things around my former house, Click Here.

This is the Masutomi community. My house/apartment was on the far left. There were other people there, but they were all old old old.

My backyard was rice patties and mountains…

Fortunately, I didn’t have to stay there that often for the next two weeks. I was actually at my house for only one day before I had to go to another round of orientations. This set of orientations went from August 11th to August 17th in Kofu. It was a round of local orientations and then an English teaching seminar. I met many Japanese Teachers of English at this seminar. I made a couple of Japanese friends there.

August 23rd was my first day of teaching. There was an opening ceremony and I had to introduce myself. I just gave a simple Japanese introduction since I was afraid of trying a complex speech in front of a bunch of native speakers. In class, I gave a simple introductory English speech on my life in Kentucky. The kids played a game of Jeopardy based on my speech. It was very fun.

Check out the horrible handwriting. It’s a good thing I don’t teach penmanship.

With students like these, you know you are going to have a good time.

I worked the rest of the week and then on the weekend I went to a barbecue with a couple of the Japanese friends I made at the English seminar.

The next week, was the first time I went to Akeno Elementary School. I didn’t have to teach any for the first few weeks since a large part of the day was being taken up by Sports Day training. Sports Day is a major school event for Japanese school children. The students participate in group oriented competitions that encourage community and not the individual. Here are some pictures from the elementary sports day training. For more Akeno Elementary School pictures, Click Here.

The school children are divided into four groups of Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow. Each group contains first through sixth graders. Each color has their own chant/cheer to encourage each other.

This is just one part of a lengthy field relay.

I’m not sure what throwing balls into a basket adds to the personal development of a child, but they take the practice very seriously. Maybe too seriously…

When I come back to America, I’ll be making the peace sign in ever photo…

Basically, my weeks follow a pattern of working during the week, going to the gym at night, and studying Japanese. There are times I do other things during the weekday, but usually all my fun adventures take place on the weekend. One of my first solo expeditions was a mountain climb on September 3rd. I climbed Mt. Mizugaki in the northern part of my town. Mizugaki is 2230.2 meters tall (1.4 miles tall). It took around two and half hours to three hours to reach the summit. The view along the way and the view from the top was great. If it had been clearer, I could have seen farther. Here are some pictures from the climb. For more pictures of Mt. Mizugaki, Click Here.

Getting ready to hike.

A mountain spring. It was the clearest water I’ve ever seen.

One of the few things on the trail to assist the climb.

This was a butterfly I found along the way to the top.

The summit is so close, yet so far away.

Take that, Mr. Mountain!

Views of the valleys below the mountain.

On September 9th, I was supposed to climb Mt. Fuji. However, I had to work. Yes, I had to work a weekend. It was for the Akeno Junior High School Festival. The first day was a round of student presentations, singing, and mingling with parents. The second day was the Sports Day competition. Here are some select photos from the sports day competition at the Junior High School. For more photos, Click Here.

Mr. Tomita is a cool guy. He’s the other English teacher at my school. He is 24 and LOVES music. He owns 1500 CD’s. He might go with me to a concert in Tokyo in November.

Go Go Go!

This is Mukade Kyousou(100 feet/centipede race). Another group building activity.

Some tug-o-war game. You can’t see it, but there are some tall mountains in the background. In the background, there is a 3,000 meter (1.86 miles) tall mountain.

These are some of my san-nen-sei students (3rd year/9th grade).

Some of my ni-nen-sei students (2nd year/8th grade).

It seems that running together is very important to the Japanese…

Finish!

Jump rope?! Go Japan.

After a lot of work preparing for the festival and a long two days of working the festival, all the teachers were ready to wind down. It was now time for a good ole’ enkai (Japanese office party). The Japanese work very long hours. There are two favorite ways to relieve the stress: hot springs and drinking. The enkai called an office party, but there is some degree of formality to it. There are some speeches and then the “kanpai” or cheers. You are not supposed to drink until the “kanpai”. Also, you do not pour your own drink. You must pour drinks for others, instead. If you want to stop the flow of libations, just leave your cup full. You get beaten with bamboo stick for breaking these rules…

An enkai is a great time to get to know your coworkers better. The Japanese have a joke term for this called, “nominacation” – a combination of “nomu” (to drink) and communication. While inebriated, they feel more at ease talking about subjects that are usually avoided in daily conversations. Sometimes, they have really impressive drunken English. Many Japanese – but not all – enjoy drinking for this reason.

The enkai usually last about 2 to 3 hours, but the party doesn’t end there. There is ni-ji-kai (2nd party), san-ji-kai (3rd party) and so on. People usually divide up and head out to different venues for more fun. Options usually include yakitori (grilled chicken kabobs), bars and pubs, and of course karaoke. We ended up going to an awesome yakitori restaurant. The cook there made some great chicken kabobs.

The next weekend (September 16th), I went to the Akeno Elementary School’s Sports Day. I also went to Akeno Elementary School’s enkai as well. The elementary school teachers are a crazy group of people. They are very funny to be around. After that night’s enkai, we went to do some karaoke. I had to show off my awesome ability to sing popular American songs. However, I really impressed them with my ability to actually read the Japanese on the screen and sing along with songs I didn’t even know.

After a long night of karaoke, I was ready for climbing a mountain the next day. On September 17th, I went with the English teacher, Mr. Hinata. We climbed Mt. Kanekatake. It wasn’t that tall. It was 1,763 meters (1.1 miles) tall. We took about two hours to climb it, but I could have done it faster if I had been on my own. Here is the picture from the summit.

After climbing the mountain, we went to a hot spring called, “mukawa no yu,” – Mukawa Hot Spring. Nothing helps form a friendship like going to a public bath…

The next weekend (September 23rd), I went to Tokyo for the Tokyo Game Show. I was able to try out the Playstation 3, new games for the Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii. I even played this English speaking game that scores how well you can speak. I ruled that game. I always had the top score. The Tokyo Game Show was held at Makuhara Messe in the Chiba Prefecture. This venue was huge and was packed with Japanese and many Westerners. The number of Westerners I saw was ridiculous. I know some live in Tokyo, but I know of many people that just flew across the Pacific to attend an event about video games. That’s just a little too nerdy. For the complete Tokyo Game Show album, Click Here.

My ticket!

Nerd Mecca

I saw a couple of Westerners try to hump this character. You should have seen the evil stares they got.

Sony had the largest booth at the Tokyo Game Show. It was packed with Japanese nerds.

Soooo many people. It took forever to get from one end to the other.

No convention can go without scantily clad women trying to sell you things. Yeah, I got their numbers.

Game conventions also attract people who love their video games way too much. They love their games so much, that they dress up as their favorite character from the game. These people are called cosplayers. They are just too weird.

I have no clue who this is supposed to be.

This guy is actually a spot-on representation of Cloud Strife from the game, Final Fantasy VII. I want to know how long he spent fixing his hair.

These girls were… weird. Yeah… weird.

Oh no! We’re almost completely caught up with my life!

This weekend (September 29th), I went to Kofu City for a large birthday party for one of the other ALT’s here in the Yamanashi Prefecture. It was good night of all you can eat and drink. Today, (September30th) I helped teach an English seminar at Yamanashi Prefecutre’s best high school in Kofu. I was very impressed with the English the students were capable of using and understanding. Normally, I have to slow my English down to an incredibly slow speed. With these students, I didn’t have to slow down as much. It was a good time and I got paid for it.

After the seminar, I spent some time in Kofu shopping. I bought some of Yamanashi’s famous candy called Kikyuya. It’s a brown sugar and chocolate mix. I got the candy as an “omiyagae” – gift – for my host family. I will be visiting my family for the first time in 4 years next weekend. I will go there October 6th and get back to my town on October 9th. I’ll be taking a train from here to Nagoya and then on to Gamagori.

Now we’re caught up! I will try to post at last once or twice a week – usually on the weekends. So, if you check on Monday morning, this should be updated. I will also send out a mass e-mail to let everyone know that I have updated my journal.

Until next time….