Friday, March 17, 2006
You know what’s boring?
WORK! WORK IS FUCKING BORING AS ALL FUCK! Boring boring boring boring boring so boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring!!!! Is it spring break yet???????
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Photos update
I updated my photos page with pics of Ann’s and my birthday party, Shibukawa, and graduation. Check it out, yo. I will put up non-family-friendly pics on the blog soon, hopefully.
Tales of the Yabuchu
Various stories from Yabuchu as of late:
-The other day at lunch I was STUFFED from the hugest kyushoku ever, and was telling my JTE that my onaka was ippai. She asked me how to say it in English, which worried me a bit, seeing as how she is the 3nensei JTE and should know how to say “I’m full.” I told her, and she responded, “Oh, so you say, ‘my stomachache is fooru?” I was like “um, just ‘I’m full’ is okay.” Ummmmmmmmm……perhaps she should know the difference between stomach and stomachache. Sigh.
-I assumed that every school is like mine on special ceremony days, but apparently not, so I will share the tale of my ghetto-ass school. All students in Japan are required to have black hair. Well, or brown, if they are weird and have brown hair, hehe. Anyway, they aren’t allowed to dye it. However, a lot of the students do so here and get away with it for the most part, until we have a special event such as opening or closing ceremony, singing contest, graduation, etc. Apparently other schools just tell the kids to dye their hair back to black, and the kids listen to the teachers. Here at Yabu, however, the kids can’t be given such responsibility, so we grab them, drag them into the staffroom, and hold them down while we spray their hair black. The morning of every event, a teacher will bring a box of black hair spray into the staffroom in preparation.
Graduation was even more amusing than ever, as I witnessed two kids being forced to wash their hair in the staffroom sink (um, actually that wasn’t so amusing, because I get my water and tea from that sink, EWW. Thank god for the tea lady being bored and cleaning it like every five minutes). The funniest moment by far was when one of the 3nensei sluts (who somehow has gotten away with a nose piercing for like six months?! Hello, I was forced to take out my earring! Bastards!) was dragged in the staffroom, covered in newspapers, and held down while a teacher sprayed her hair. Her look of anger, combined with newspapers hanging from her shoulders was far too much. I SO wanted a picture of it, but decided she probably wouldn’t be very happy with me. Hehe.
-There is this one “bad boy” 3nensei who I literally saw maybe three or four times in the last six months of school. He never acted up when I saw him, but I could tell that I would have hated him when he was an 1 and 2nensei. Anyway, he apparently always skipped classes, as I really had no idea who he was or what class he was supposed to be in. He was at graduation along with a girl who I had NEVER seen, who apparently was a 3nensei, as she graduated too (more details on the fucked-up Japanese education system at Cindy’s blog). She looks like the female version of him, but I think they might be dating, which is VERY gross in my book. Anyway, I pretty much never saw them at school, but the DAY after graduation, they show up (in “cool” sweats, big surprise!) and hang out in the staffroom for like an hour! What the hell! If you didn’t ever come to school while you were a student, don’t come back and hang out after you graduate!
-Japanese kids love word finds more than anything in the world. If you ever want to get kids to focus on English, give them a word find and they won’t talk for an hour. I taught my worst 1nensei class today by myself, which would usually be a recipe for disaster, but they were quieter than they've ever been thanks to the word find. Ah, I rabu rabu me some word finds!
-The other day at lunch I was STUFFED from the hugest kyushoku ever, and was telling my JTE that my onaka was ippai. She asked me how to say it in English, which worried me a bit, seeing as how she is the 3nensei JTE and should know how to say “I’m full.” I told her, and she responded, “Oh, so you say, ‘my stomachache is fooru?” I was like “um, just ‘I’m full’ is okay.” Ummmmmmmmm……perhaps she should know the difference between stomach and stomachache. Sigh.
-I assumed that every school is like mine on special ceremony days, but apparently not, so I will share the tale of my ghetto-ass school. All students in Japan are required to have black hair. Well, or brown, if they are weird and have brown hair, hehe. Anyway, they aren’t allowed to dye it. However, a lot of the students do so here and get away with it for the most part, until we have a special event such as opening or closing ceremony, singing contest, graduation, etc. Apparently other schools just tell the kids to dye their hair back to black, and the kids listen to the teachers. Here at Yabu, however, the kids can’t be given such responsibility, so we grab them, drag them into the staffroom, and hold them down while we spray their hair black. The morning of every event, a teacher will bring a box of black hair spray into the staffroom in preparation.
Graduation was even more amusing than ever, as I witnessed two kids being forced to wash their hair in the staffroom sink (um, actually that wasn’t so amusing, because I get my water and tea from that sink, EWW. Thank god for the tea lady being bored and cleaning it like every five minutes). The funniest moment by far was when one of the 3nensei sluts (who somehow has gotten away with a nose piercing for like six months?! Hello, I was forced to take out my earring! Bastards!) was dragged in the staffroom, covered in newspapers, and held down while a teacher sprayed her hair. Her look of anger, combined with newspapers hanging from her shoulders was far too much. I SO wanted a picture of it, but decided she probably wouldn’t be very happy with me. Hehe.
-There is this one “bad boy” 3nensei who I literally saw maybe three or four times in the last six months of school. He never acted up when I saw him, but I could tell that I would have hated him when he was an 1 and 2nensei. Anyway, he apparently always skipped classes, as I really had no idea who he was or what class he was supposed to be in. He was at graduation along with a girl who I had NEVER seen, who apparently was a 3nensei, as she graduated too (more details on the fucked-up Japanese education system at Cindy’s blog). She looks like the female version of him, but I think they might be dating, which is VERY gross in my book. Anyway, I pretty much never saw them at school, but the DAY after graduation, they show up (in “cool” sweats, big surprise!) and hang out in the staffroom for like an hour! What the hell! If you didn’t ever come to school while you were a student, don’t come back and hang out after you graduate!
-Japanese kids love word finds more than anything in the world. If you ever want to get kids to focus on English, give them a word find and they won’t talk for an hour. I taught my worst 1nensei class today by myself, which would usually be a recipe for disaster, but they were quieter than they've ever been thanks to the word find. Ah, I rabu rabu me some word finds!
Kyoukasho Switch
I found out this week (to my chagrin) that we are switching from the oh-so-amazing Sunshine textbook to One World beginning in April. While this is good news, due to Sunshine’s extreme crappiness, it is bad news to Jeffrey because it means I might not be able to re-use some of my lesson plans next year! Fortunately most of the grammar points are the same, so I should be able to re-use most. We shall see.
I got my copies of One World today and flipped through them, and they seemed slightly better than Sunshine (tho I will miss slutty Yuki!!!). Cindy, I agree that Coach Brown is one scary-ass beeotch, wtf! Also, why does EVERY Japanese-made ESL textbook have to have a character named Mr. or Ms. Brown? Even Yokoso, the Japanese textbook I used in high school, had a Brown Sensei. It really isn’t that common of a last name, folks.
While reading a few random chapters from the textbook (a sign of my complete boredom at work today), I found out that the first English teacher was from Oregon and was named Ranald MacDonald! Ahahaha! I find it somehow fitting that the first English teacher in this country had the same name (albeit mis-spelled) as the mascot of McDonald’s.
I do have one large worry related to the new textbooks…there is a PLETHORA of songs (with freaking music written out in the books!) to sing along to. My JTEs had better not expect me to bust out into fucking days of the week songs and shit. I do that enough at shou, yo. Plus I don’t even do it with 5 and 6nensei there, as they are too cool to sing, let alone chuugakusei, wtf! Ota ALTs, an anti-singing petition may be in our futures.
I got my copies of One World today and flipped through them, and they seemed slightly better than Sunshine (tho I will miss slutty Yuki!!!). Cindy, I agree that Coach Brown is one scary-ass beeotch, wtf! Also, why does EVERY Japanese-made ESL textbook have to have a character named Mr. or Ms. Brown? Even Yokoso, the Japanese textbook I used in high school, had a Brown Sensei. It really isn’t that common of a last name, folks.
While reading a few random chapters from the textbook (a sign of my complete boredom at work today), I found out that the first English teacher was from Oregon and was named Ranald MacDonald! Ahahaha! I find it somehow fitting that the first English teacher in this country had the same name (albeit mis-spelled) as the mascot of McDonald’s.
I do have one large worry related to the new textbooks…there is a PLETHORA of songs (with freaking music written out in the books!) to sing along to. My JTEs had better not expect me to bust out into fucking days of the week songs and shit. I do that enough at shou, yo. Plus I don’t even do it with 5 and 6nensei there, as they are too cool to sing, let alone chuugakusei, wtf! Ota ALTs, an anti-singing petition may be in our futures.
Monday, March 13, 2006
Photoso de randomo
Instead of posting useful pics, here are three ones taken because I was both bored and amused....
An apartment complex called "kuroobaa" Heights. I thought it was supposed to mean Crowbar Heights, but Ann realized that it's meant to be Clover Heights. I wanna live in Crowbar Heights!
Only in Japan is it okay to park like this
These are all over the trains lately. They are meant to be running noses, but they look rather penis-y to me!
An apartment complex called "kuroobaa" Heights. I thought it was supposed to mean Crowbar Heights, but Ann realized that it's meant to be Clover Heights. I wanna live in Crowbar Heights!
Only in Japan is it okay to park like this
These are all over the trains lately. They are meant to be running noses, but they look rather penis-y to me!
Sotsugyou omedetou!
Today was the graduation ceremony for the 3nensei. They have been practicing forever, and I predicted that it would be very organized, but probably not entertaining at all, as it is Japanese and boring (I’m not a bitch!). Man, did I predict things correctly! First of all, I stood up and sat down so many times that it felt like I was at Catholic church! All we needed was someone molesting little boys….oh, wait, that’s me! Ahaha, I kid because I love. Anyway, it wasn’t very fun at all. Even the 3nensei seemed bored! On top of the boredom, I was literally about to pee my pants for like two hours until I finally left in the middle. My thought process throughout the entire ceremony went something like this: “Man, this is fucking boring. Fuck, we’re standing again?! At least I’m sitting next to the hot sensei, rowr. Man, I have to pee. This is boring. FUCK, I have to pee. Why is this PTA guy talking for ten hours?! Shut up or I’ll pee on your face. Fuck this is boring and I have to PEEEEEEEEEE, end now!” Yes, good times in the gym.
Afterwards the parents and teachers watched the students leave school for the last time, it was really sad! Well, not really leave school, but like walk away from it….or something. I was happy that I brought my camera because I finally got to take pics with my students, yay! Man, I have never done the peace sign so many times in my life! It was fun, though….I’m gonna miss my 3nensei! Sotsugyou omedetouuuuuuuuuu!
Afterwards the parents and teachers watched the students leave school for the last time, it was really sad! Well, not really leave school, but like walk away from it….or something. I was happy that I brought my camera because I finally got to take pics with my students, yay! Man, I have never done the peace sign so many times in my life! It was fun, though….I’m gonna miss my 3nensei! Sotsugyou omedetouuuuuuuuuu!
The Wonderful Wiz of Shibukawa
On Friday Cindy and I branched out and actually (gasp) left Ota for the night! We wandered up north to the ever-happenin’ metropolis known as Shibukawa to party Shibs-style! It was a lot of fun, and Shibukawa is actually a lot bigger than I expected based on descriptions. It’s cute!
I do believe the whole night was a big excuse for me to ruin the week’s diet as much as possible. Not only did I get a “snack” at McDonald’s, but I also ate for like seven hours in a row. Hrm. Oh, well.
Anyway, we went to The Wiz, the local karaoke place, which was…..extremely interesting :) I don’t think words can do it justice, but I will try. First of all, I was surprised, because it is the American version of a karaoke bar. There aren’t karaoke boxes, but one karaoke machine and lots of tables (the place was huge!). All of the tables are surrounded by the most ‘70’s chairs one could possibly imagine, and it is all dark and VERY ghetto, indeed! The place is run by an old obachan who does everything herself, including putting in your songs. You write the numbers on a piece of paper, give them to her, and she puts them in. This gives her a bit too much control, as apparently some nights she will just stop putting them in when she is trying to “hint” that you should leave! Hahaha. Anyway, the place was huge, but we were the ONLY ones there. It was fun! It was nice to see Shibukawa peeps, as well as others that wandered on up. I think the lady may have had a crush on me, as she would stop serving drinks and stare at me while I was singing? Hmm, perhaps I can get some old lady action in Shibukawa! Sweeeeeeeeeeet!
After a lot of nomihoudai, we made our way to Chau’s house, where we proved that we are the biggest nerds EVER by playing Taboo until 4 in the morning. I seriously could have played it for like five more hours! We played east coasters versus west coasters, and might I say that west coasters are amazing! We more than doubled the east coasters’ score, and their may have been a small amount of bitterness in the room! Hehe. Also, I must say that Daniel is a genius and had the most elaborate explanations for words, while the rest of us could barely speak English. Hmm.
We assed out at Anna’s house at 5 in the morning (thanks, Anna!), and I discovered that I am an old man, as I hadn’t been up that late in a million years. Saturday we went to lunch in Shibs, then trained it back to Ota to see Narnia at AEON. Um, that is the longest movie EVER. It really isn’t THAT long, but it feels like eight years long. Also, the kids annoyed me. Ehhhhhh, I didn’t like it very much. Sad. We also tried the tabehoudai place at AEON and discovered that like many buffets in America, it was too good to be true. We got a coupon for a free meal the next time we went, and no one wanted it! Haha.
On Sunday I got on my knees, worked up a sweat, and got dirty………bleaching my floors! Hmm, perhaps I should have invested in some gloves for that project, as my hands still smell of poison. I came to the conclusion halfway through that I don’t plan on doing it again this year because cleaning floors sucks. Time to buy a Swiffer! It was good, tho, as I have been meaning to do it for like eight months. I should have visitors more often, my house is gonna be hella clean by the time Kris comes!
I also went to Bunshindo and rented the gayest shit EVER. I got another Hirai Ken CD, Waterboys (the movie about a high school boys’ synchronized swimming team), and Umizaru (a movie based on the TV show about divers who wear spandex the whole time). Mmmmm! I watched Waterboys, and it is really good in a horrible horrible way. Good stuff!
Meh, I really need to upload a million photos but I am oh, so lazy. Eventually!
I do believe the whole night was a big excuse for me to ruin the week’s diet as much as possible. Not only did I get a “snack” at McDonald’s, but I also ate for like seven hours in a row. Hrm. Oh, well.
Anyway, we went to The Wiz, the local karaoke place, which was…..extremely interesting :) I don’t think words can do it justice, but I will try. First of all, I was surprised, because it is the American version of a karaoke bar. There aren’t karaoke boxes, but one karaoke machine and lots of tables (the place was huge!). All of the tables are surrounded by the most ‘70’s chairs one could possibly imagine, and it is all dark and VERY ghetto, indeed! The place is run by an old obachan who does everything herself, including putting in your songs. You write the numbers on a piece of paper, give them to her, and she puts them in. This gives her a bit too much control, as apparently some nights she will just stop putting them in when she is trying to “hint” that you should leave! Hahaha. Anyway, the place was huge, but we were the ONLY ones there. It was fun! It was nice to see Shibukawa peeps, as well as others that wandered on up. I think the lady may have had a crush on me, as she would stop serving drinks and stare at me while I was singing? Hmm, perhaps I can get some old lady action in Shibukawa! Sweeeeeeeeeeet!
After a lot of nomihoudai, we made our way to Chau’s house, where we proved that we are the biggest nerds EVER by playing Taboo until 4 in the morning. I seriously could have played it for like five more hours! We played east coasters versus west coasters, and might I say that west coasters are amazing! We more than doubled the east coasters’ score, and their may have been a small amount of bitterness in the room! Hehe. Also, I must say that Daniel is a genius and had the most elaborate explanations for words, while the rest of us could barely speak English. Hmm.
We assed out at Anna’s house at 5 in the morning (thanks, Anna!), and I discovered that I am an old man, as I hadn’t been up that late in a million years. Saturday we went to lunch in Shibs, then trained it back to Ota to see Narnia at AEON. Um, that is the longest movie EVER. It really isn’t THAT long, but it feels like eight years long. Also, the kids annoyed me. Ehhhhhh, I didn’t like it very much. Sad. We also tried the tabehoudai place at AEON and discovered that like many buffets in America, it was too good to be true. We got a coupon for a free meal the next time we went, and no one wanted it! Haha.
On Sunday I got on my knees, worked up a sweat, and got dirty………bleaching my floors! Hmm, perhaps I should have invested in some gloves for that project, as my hands still smell of poison. I came to the conclusion halfway through that I don’t plan on doing it again this year because cleaning floors sucks. Time to buy a Swiffer! It was good, tho, as I have been meaning to do it for like eight months. I should have visitors more often, my house is gonna be hella clean by the time Kris comes!
I also went to Bunshindo and rented the gayest shit EVER. I got another Hirai Ken CD, Waterboys (the movie about a high school boys’ synchronized swimming team), and Umizaru (a movie based on the TV show about divers who wear spandex the whole time). Mmmmm! I watched Waterboys, and it is really good in a horrible horrible way. Good stuff!
Meh, I really need to upload a million photos but I am oh, so lazy. Eventually!
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