ONE OK BUNNY vs the start of Elementary School

Another day at a new school but today I actually had to teach ^^

I got thrown into it right away and bombed my first class. I think I was assuming I would get more queues from the teacher in terms of timing but no. The first teacher I heard about before; he seems so strict and by the book in class but he is a great guy. I felt bad messing things up. My timing was off and I believe i ran into the next class. The next class I ran out of time during the second to last activity. >_< The next class was the least responsive and it was a bit like pulling teeth. The last class though was the best with my timing down as well the teacher helping me by placing the flashcards on the board for me as I ran through them. Then the two periods after lunch were prep times so I sat in the teachers room writing.

So I had lunch with 6-2 which was my best class of the day. It was something else! I was escorted by two of the kids back to the teachers room where they took my tray of food and carried it back to their classroom with me in tow. I felt like a queen with her court lol I also would get summoned to the classroom by a couple of the kids coming to the teachers room.

That has been something amazing to me! Kids would come to the room to say get me or get a key from the cabinet they stand at the door and announce themselves; "I'm Tanaka from class 6-3 here to get oneokbunny-sensei!" then the vice principal or other teacher will give them the ok to come in and they hurry to my desk ^^

Also after lunch well during lunch but after we all eat there are a few kids who come in to clean the teachers room for us. They take out the trash and sweep the room. I love seeing how much respect the teachers have. I personally believe they deserve it! Our future is coming from their lessons ^^

So the annoying thing about my ES is that the bus comes over an hour after I get off and if I miss that one I wait 2 hours >_< but there is a 100 yen shop and it is a huge one at that! I might be able to run over and get some things and make my bus. Though I swear the IC tried to show me the bus stops for my ES and they were in front of the 100 yen shop! but today I went to head back that way and there were no stops on that street O_O shocking! so I have a bit of a worry on timing on making the bus if I go shopping ^^

So tired at the moment and feeling a little off so taking some vc and getting some sleep!

ONE OK BUNNY vs the First Day

Today seems a very long time coming. Coming in one of the last groups of recovery teachers and being one of the few who didn't have to teach for over a month... had it's pluses (who wouldn't want to be paid for sitting around? Extra time for settling in!) and well it's minuses... like training after training... after training. Training started to get annoying for me because I am the type of person who opens a manual reads "flip the on switch" and throw the book aside in favor of pushing buttons to see what they do. During training you can try things out in front of others and get feedback but it's not the same as working with the kids. Or at least I don't think so! ^^;;;

Today was my first day and it was at my JHS. In spite of how things turned out before... I got a lot of info about my ES but heard nothing about my first day at my JHS. I did was I was supposed to do telling Interac a week before. I heard nothing. So last night after yet more training I went into the office to at least find out what time I should show up.

The scheduler quickly called the JHS and asked what was going on. We learned that today would be the opening ceremony so I would most likely give a speech and sit in the teacher's office for the rest of the day. I was so so so relieved and all the fear I was feeling about my first day was gone! Now that I knew what was going to happen and I could relax!

So today I headed out early to see where the bus would be for my trip to my ES tomorrow and to get to school around 8am. On my walk I came across a couple of my future students who said "Hello" to me. I made my way to the hill which my school sits on top of. I still hate this hill but today it seemed shorter then I thought lol

I arrived and walked up to a teacher welcoming students in and said I didn't know where to go. She took me in the teacher entrance, which is next to the students, and up to the teachers room. I met the principal and vice principal and was served iced coffee as I waited.

I was introduced to the teachers and made them laugh. I was told I would be saying something at the opening ceremony and met the English teachers for each year. The 1st year teacher helped me out a lot and stood by my side during the ceremony. He explained parts of the ceremony as well.

I got up and when I said Good Morning! the 100+ students replied lol I said in Japanese my name where i was from and said my Japanese wasn't good so switching to English, Let's try English! ok? and I heard the reply ok!

My school is currently readying itself for the sports day festival this weekend so most of the teachers were working with their students. I wrote most of the day in my notebook; working on a new novel.

Lunch was good! Some of the best Curry I've had! ^^ I am hoping that most of the school lunches will turn out as good.

After lunch I made the mistake of how i answered a question the vice-principal asked. He asked if I knew how to get to my ES. I answered "...yes?" This lead to the VP the P and a couple teachers looking at maps and buses for me. I feel the love in it but I feel bad for putting them out like that... and felt even worse when they called the ES @_@! But it reminds me what I love about Japanese culture! They all seemed to really want to help me figure out how to get to my ES.

I went home and yeah even though it's 9:30pm now as soon as I finish writing I am going to sleep!

Today was magical though! one of those moments when the universe seems to click and say hey you've been through bad stuff in life so hey here's one on me be happy! It's ok!

Butterflies and Dragonflies going about in the gym during the ceremony. My coworkers at the school seem amazing! It seemed that every time I left my desk there was a treat left on it. Random students walking by the open door to the teachers room seeing me and whispering hello. Watching the students prepare the games and dances for the sports festival...... it was all so magical!!

Tomorrow.... my first day at my ES and my first day teaching. Hope it's as magical as today!

ONE OK BUNNY vs the Earthquakes

So I'm in Japan and the big elephant in the room at the moment here is the disaster that happened on March 11th. An almost unimaginable and unheard of 9.0 earthquake struck just off the coast of the Tohoku region of Japan. Unheard of that is until the recent increase in mega quakes.

As everything unfolded before my eyes on CNN I worried about my friends and their families. My heart went out to all those lost as well those they left behind. I really wanted to be on the next plane to Tokyo to go help out those who were not homeless and living in make shift shelters. But pushed in the back of my head was the most selfish of thoughts....

"What did this mean for my dream of moving to Japan to become an English teacher?"

Now we know what happened after; I got hired by Interac and ended up moving my departure to July 7th. I am now sitting in a seaside city(thankfully a city mostly high up so no worries so much) and I see damage from the earthquake everywhere; mainly in the appearance of tarps up on numerous roofs around the area and cracked stairs as well as severely damaged sidewalks.

I have been here about a month and half and the reason I am deciding to collect my thoughts so far is because the largest earthquake that has happened since I arrived happened today.

Earthquakes are a part of my life right now. There is not a day that goes by that one or two 3 to 5 pointers happen. The first night in Japan just before 4 am I experienced my first earthquake here this time. It even got to a point I could assume there would be a sizable quake sometime in the 3am hour. ^^; The one that worried me the most was a... 6.2 that happened when I was down in Yokohama for the weekend. Since I was away I worried about what had happen with things in my apartment. I thankfully only returned to this

A couple knocked over classes and picture frames. So yesterday I came to the conclusion that I am too numb to earthquakes now. I fear to the fault of not taking cover when I really would need to. Today opened my eyes to that more.

I was at training with 7 guys that are the first batch of fall intakes for Interac. One of them had never experienced earthquakes before landing in Japan. There were two quakes strong enough to notice during training today. The first happened and I didn't think much of it at all. I heard some slightly panic breathing next to me and realized to one who was not numb... perhaps used to is a better term.... to the earthquakes it would be a frightening thing. Especially this is someone who did not come early to be placed "most probably" in Tohoku and might have had worries of being so close to disaster area. These earthquakes would be very scary in your first week.

I might smile and laugh a little about the fear but if you were to put me in the middle of tornado alley and a F1 was touching down or a hurricane cat 1 was coming I would be really scared.

So that was my reason for talking about daily life and quakes! ^^

The ones that do worry me are the ones that epicenter is within a few km of here. The earthquake monitoring station near by is the first to read the quakes. They have been strong jolting quakes but they only last a couple seconds.

outside of all that....

Still waiting for my first payday but life is fine and I have one more week before I start teaching! I am looking forward to it but after today.... bombed my demo and had to take a moment for some tears and pull myself together... I am a little worried about my "AH!!! I CAN'T DO THIS!!!" phase but I got to get through that to get to what I'm looking forward to when it's second nature. ^_^ v

ONE OK BUNNY vs the Juo Matsuri

Today was the local Matsuri!

Even though I've studied Japanese culture there is still so much to learn about it! I have to say that today felt like some happy memories from my childhood.

Growing up the town I lived in was one of the few in the area that had a Independence Day Parade. I lived only a few blocks away from the parade route so within the blocks between me and the route was staging grounds. A block away was the horses and the block after that was the line of floats. I remember waking up early putting out chairs to save our spot then walking around and seeing everything. There was just something about being so close like that.

Today reminded me of that feeling! I walked out to take a look after applying for my concert tickets to go see ONE OK ROCK in November and saw things were still getting ready and people where really out yet. I also remembered that I needed lunch ^^;; So had a quick bite and checked again. I loved that! Going and coming back then heading out again.

Today was really hot! So after getting some footage of the shrine being moved and some girls dancing on the stage I went back to my apartment in fear of getting sunburned. I also poked my friend who wanted to check it out (sadly the one i talked about in the previous entry). She came over and as I got an update from her about things we cooled down in my ac'd room before heading out.

So what to know about a Matsuri!

First off Matsuri means festival! just in case you didn't know ^^;;

The man things to see at most matsuri is the shrine being carried along as well as the hanabi or fireworks at night. Sure there are some huge matsuri out there like the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto which is worth seeing! And I plan to find a way to weekend in Sapporo for the Snow Matsuri in February as well. But there are a ton of matsuri's happening all over because there is no set date for them. though July and August with Tanabata and Obon sees a lot of them.

Another point to matsuris are food! Lots of yummy japanese food like Yakisoba, Takoyaki, as well as one of my favorites Okonomiyaki! But the highlight of summer matsuri is shaved ice! ^^

There was a stage built and seemed throughout the day there were dancing and other shows going on. Some were hiphop dancing to popular songs and others were traditional Japanese dance complete with flutes and drums. I almost wished they had seats in some shade so i could enjoy it the whole time.

I was really excited to see one thing I've known to be popular with matsuri is Goldfish scooping. You get a hoop with thin rice paper and try to scoop the fish into a bowl and you keep what you get. It's harder then it looks I bet!

Something that seems rare in Japan is the added event of bird fishing at the Juo Matsuri. At the river they close off an area and set some torches/bond fires on the shore. Then set two cormorants and their handlers loose in the river to catch fish. It was amazing to see and next year I want to get a pic of the bird with the fish in it's mouth!

After that the lights on the bank were turned off and the fires put out and the hanabi started!

I really wanted to see Hanabi!! But I didn't want to deal with a million people or walk a few km to get somewhere to watch them;alone to boot! nope not feeling it!

so the local small hanabi outside my front door worked perfectly!

The local people are amazing and I really got a feel for who they were as group. The matsuri was more about local flavor then overall japanese flavor and i really enjoyed that.

When the hanabi started and there were about... 30second or a minute of solid fireworks and they stopped the old lady next to me joked that was it. lol I seriously lol'd. Then hearing the girls in front of me laugh and mock one of the fireworks for making a loud exciting noise then not being much visually. I just felt the local community.

Best day for far! ^^

ONE OK BUNNY vs the loneliness

So starts the new world of this blog! I wanted to come up with a way to title my blogs with some kind of uniform. So ONE OK BUNNY vs... what ever the topic would be ^^

Tomorrow will mark a month since I landed in Japan. Though I have only been in my apartment under two weeks I am still working on getting things set up.

What I want to talk about is what I'm sure most people coming over alone will deal with in someway. The situation is worse in my case then most because I tend to be shy in new situations and have had very little money this far. I don't see the situation changing much until my first paycheck at the end of September.

I'm talking about the whole starting somewhere new and meeting new people thing. In this situation every situation is different as every person is different. I am going through a strange phase of being so lonely and going out of my mind sitting in my apartment as well as at the same time just wanting to be a hermit and not do anything or see anyone.

The ALTs I met in Hitachi are amazing and it might because I came right before break that I find myself with a lot of time on my hands. The ALTs I'm sure are also busy because they are on holiday. That coupled with no money means not seeing anyone really.

I got invited out a few times by the girl I came up with from Tokyo because the ALTs invited her out. It was left with a "I'll let you know" from her then nothing came of it. She had done that a few times so I just rolled with it.

I think this phase will go better for those in the fall intake because they start work shortly after arriving and I will have to wait a few more weeks before my first day of class.

I did meet one ALT that lives about 2km from me that I seemed to hit it off with. She told me when she came about a month before me she knew no one until the day we met in training. I couldn't believe it! When I arrived the company was all about me meeting the other ALTs so I wouldn't be lonely.

Today the one ALT so far I've started to get to know told me she wants to go home and break contract. Now this is her business but I wanted to bring it up because she is for sure not one who would crack in a new country; she's been there done that and is well traveled. There are worries about family at home that could turn into an emergency which anyone would want to be home for. Even though every job tells you leave personal problems outside of the work place it's almost impossible to do! Sometimes life points you in a direction that you need to head and that maybe why she wants to go home. on a more personal note one summer I had to drop out of summer classes and go home because everything worked against me and I couldn't afford it. It turned out my mom passed away that summer so I had just short of 2 months with her before it happen suddenly.

I'm sorry about being random in my thoughts and just kind of rambling. Emotions do that ^^

So as bummed as I am about the one friend I'm making leaving soon I totally support her and hope the best for her in the future. I just wanted to point out that I don't think there is a guarantee that you might not get depressed here no matter what you've done in the past or what type of person you are. I look back at my time studying abroad and see I spiraled into a depression and I thought it had to do with having no money to do anything. After today I wonder if there was more to it. I am being fully aware of all that keeping it in mind and trying to stay sane now ^^

And on an unrelated note! My money issues are sure to continue... why? because I had to buy a new computer with my loan... yeah my other broke. Though a friend pointed out that the difference in power would kill the computer at some point. So I got a new laptop yesterday and with that my issues with money continue! ^^