Just Call Me Hummingbird

Yesterday was a rather eventful day for me.

My school had a road safety demonstration in the afternoon to teach the students how important it is to be careful when they are riding their bikes. Naturally, they figured that the best way to do this was to demonstrate the results of being hit by a car. Now in order to do that you need live stuntmen. Yup, you read that right. We had stuntmen come to our school and get repeatedly run over in our field by all manner of vehicles. They were hit by other bikes, people, cars, scooters, and even a transport truck. Needless to say it was a rather entertaining way to spend an hour! Unfortunately, as awesome as it was, I’m not too sure about how effective it was at deterring dangerous biking. The stuntmen made it look like rather a lot of fun to go flying through the air. I mean, they were able to just stand up and dust themselves off so why can’t I?

After that I had to stay late and help some first graders prepare for the speech competition. They were feeling really nervous about it so I told them that they needed to treat themselves when they had finished and that they should buy themselves some cake to reward themselves. Judging by their reactions I think they thought I was going to buy them cake. I tried to make it clearer that they should buy the cake but I don’t think they got it. So now it looks like I might have to buy everyone cake…

Once I wrapped up at school I headed over to the bank to pay my rent because I am still without a bank account (but that’s a whole other story!) So I went to the bank to try and send money to my landlord through the ATM. Everything is in kanji, of course, but I had my slip from last time so I was hoping that I could just match the squiggles and everything would turn out alright in the end. After 15 minutes of squiggle matching I throw my hard earned money into the machine and hope for the best. Out pops my receipt and wouldn’t you know it, I got part of it wrong >.< Thankfully it wasn’t anything vital, just my name. So when my landlord gets his receipt saying that someone put money in his account, it will be signed “Hummingbird” Whoops! Well, I guess there are worse things I could have called myself!

My Apartment

Due to popular demand I am going to take you on a tour of my apartment. Welcome to the Hummingbird!

Front entrance

Living Room

Kitchen

Water Closet (it really is a closet)

Vanity/Laundry

Bathroom/Shower

Bedroom

View as I leave my front door

Long Weekend

This past weekend was a long one here and to top it off we have this Thursday off as well. Monday was Respect for the Aged Day and Thursday is the Fall Equinox. I love being in a Shinto country :)

I started my weekend off by having my new bed delivered and assembled by the kind people from Nitori. The guy even asked how I wanted it positioned and one of the options I was asked about was whether I wanted it smack in the middle of the room. Now I know that I am a weird foreigner but no, no I do not want it in the middle of the room. And yes I want the headboard against the wall, not the foot board.

On Sunday I headed into Tokyo in search of some elusive art supplies, namely canvas and paint. I can't find them anywhere nearby! I'm sure they exist here but I'll be damned if I knew where! So I got on a train and headed for Shibuya district. I ended up having a rather lovely conversation with a middle aged man. When he found out I was from Canada he asked if Owen Sound had snow yet. Of all the places in Canada, the one he knows is Owen Sound! When I told him I was from Ottawa he asked if it was in BC - I cried a little inside. At least he had never heard of Toronto either, or for that matter, Ontario. He then asked if I eat maple syrup everyday. I though of Elizabeth :)

Once I got to Shibuya I stumbled across a festival. I have no idea what the festival was but I've dubbed it the "Pants are Optional Festival". I didn't get any great shots because I didn't want to look like a pervert but man it was tempting! A lot of the men were wearing really bright thongs. A good time was had by all.

I managed to find a new purse and a hair pin from a Malasian shop so that made me really happy and I found my art supplies and was given the biggest bag you have ever seen. I felt a little silly on the train ride home but at least I found what I was looking for. The selection wasn't great but they had what I wanted so all in all it was a successful trip into the big city.

That evening I headed over to Isesaki to have dinner with some fellow JETs. We had stuffed mushroom caps, homemade pumpkin soup, beef stroganoff and homemade funnel cake. It was delicious! Unfortunately I got a crazy headache and had to leave before the funnel cake. I was so disappointed because I had been looking forward to it all week. Thankfully I was given a rain cheque that I plan on cashing in the near future :)

To cap off my weekend I marathoned some Doctor Who. I think I can safely say that I am obsessed.

Sparrow Wasps and Fire Drills

Yesterday turned out to be a rather interesting day at school.

I knew right off the bat that I was going to have to solo-teach one of my first year classes because the teacher I was supposed to be teaching with needed to take the day off. I'm not sure why, all I knew was that I was on my own. But first I had to teach a class with one of my favourite teachers.

Let me start off my saying that this particular teacher is young and energetic and is really great at getting the kids interested in what I am trying to teach them. He wears adidas runners with his dress pants and is just an all around cool guy. So when I was at the front of the room trying to explain how to do a certain activity I couldn't help but be amused by what unfolded. I noticed that some of the students were rather distracted by something flying around behind/above me. When I turned around to find out what was so mesmerizing I discovered my first sparrow wasp!

Don't worry that's not me holding it, I found this on Google.

Holy cow those things are massive! When I turned back around to face the class again figuring, the best thing would just be to ignore it and hope it flies back out the window, I noticed that my JTE was strategically keeping the students between himself and the bee. I had to laugh because he was essentially sacrificing me and the students to this monster of a bee. I asked him if he was scared and he laughed and stayed where he was after briefly considering coming closer. The best part about all of this is that no one actually told me what it was. I only know about them because I researched creepy bugs before I moved here. So thanks Japan for letting me know my life was in danger. It was much appreciated... >.<

After that I had my solo-teaching class and it went alright. We didn't quite make it through the material but I can appreciate that it is hard to pay attention and behave when you have no idea what is being asked of you. But once I figured out that my students respond like The Clapper it was smooth sailing! Clap once and say "Go!" and they do the activity. Clap twice and wait and they all shut up. It's a marvelous system.

In the afternoon it was time for our yearly fire drill. I was expecting something akin to the drills back home where when the alarm goes off, everyone jumps out of their skin and then runs outside where you proceed to misbehave until you are given the all-clear to go back to class. This is not how it happens in Japan. That would be uncivilized. All I was told before hand was, "There is going to be a fire drill during 6th period, so please escape!" Instant images of the robot from Lost in Space flailing his arms while saying "Danger! Danger!" popped into my head. But when the alarm did go off, no one did anything. They all just sat there! I asked my supervisor about escaping and she said we had to wait for the announcement.

After listening to the alarm go off for roughly a minute the VP gets on the intercom and lets us all know that there is a fire in the kitchen and that it would be greatly appreciated if we could all please vacate the premises if it isn't too much of a bother. Or at least I imagine that was what was being said because it was all rather calm and took a while to say. Once that announcement was over we could head for the hills right? No?! Ok, now I get to run around the school making sure everyone is out. Check. Ok, don't forget to put your outside shoes on. We don't want to get dirt on our work shoes now do we? Good heavens no!

Outside all the students lined up in their neat little rows where they got to listen to speeches about fire safety. Once those were done the firefighters showed the students how to use a fire extinguisher and a few lucky 3rd years and some of the staff got to put out a controlled fire in the middle of the school sports field. That part was actually pretty fun! The entire fire drill took an hour. At least the weather was nice :)

Typhoon?

Apparently a typhoon hit my area of Japan today; could of fooled me, but that's what happens when you live in Gunma -  not much :) The one thing it did mean though was that there was finally a break in the heat wave! Woohoo! It was rainy for most of the day and it was a cool 35 degrees. I had almost forgotten what it was like not to sweat. Let me tell you, it's glorious!

I had the day off today because I have to go in on Saturday and it did a lot to boost my mood. I got up at my regular time, made some coffee and chatted with Fran on MSN. Then I got to talk to Jon, Steph and Alex over Skype and play a little WoW with them. After that I chatted with my dad through Skype and did some laundry.

Once I had hung that up to dry I headed downtown to check out the major shopping mall here called Keyaki Walk. I wandered around for a few hours and tried on a few things (nothing fit, of course, but it was close!) There was another pet store there that I got to check out, no turkeys this time but there was a scottish fold kitten  =^-^= I found milk bread as it was being taken out of the oven so it was all warm and gooey! Mmmm... I also treated myself to an iced crème brûlée latte and crème brûlée pastry from Starbucks as I watched the rain.

As I was walking back to the train station I realised that I felt normal for the first time since I arrived in Japan. It's amazing what talking to friends back home, window shopping and Starbucks can do. Things are looking up and I think it's going to be a good year after all.

Oh Japan...

Tonight I was supposed to head over to Takasaki to meet some other ALTs for dinner. Japan had other plans for me. Before I could head over to the train station I had to go to the video store to rent a movie for my English movie club which starts tomorrow. However, when I went down to my bike I found that someone had stolen the little do-hicky on my back tire that keeps all the air in so not only was it flat, but I couldn't pump it back up either. So now I have to make the trip to the rental store by foot and make a side trip over to the superstore to try and find the right part. I didn't have time to do all this and make it over to Takaskai on time so I had to cancel my dinner plans :( Damn you random thief! Who steals a tire cap anyway? At least he left me a disposable chopstick in my basket...

I decided to pick up Avatar at the rental place because I have no idea what they might be interested in and Avatar has a wide fan base so hopefully they will enjoy it. I'll be sure to take a poll and see what kind of movies they are interested so I will have more to go on for next week. Otherwise they will have to watch whatever I feel like. Mwahahaa!

Seeing as I now had a wide open evening I decided to check out the pet & garden store nearby before I swung by the grocery store for dinner. I was enjoying poking around and looking at all the pretty plants and puppies when I headed over to the bird section. Standing there, right in the corner and out in the open, are 2 turkeys! TURKEYS! Two of em! What the?! I have no idea what they were doing there or if they were for sale but it was one of the most random things I have seen so far in Japan - and I wouldn't have seen them if someone didn't steal the cap on my bike. Bizarre. When I turned to leave I saw a giant tortoise in a cardboard box with his write-up taped to his shell. I had to laugh.

I ended up buying 2 things that looked like they might do the trick and fix my bike and brought them home. After putting my groceries (and a bottle of Yellowtail!) away I went back downstairs to make sure I could bike to work tomorrow. Well, as luck would have it, neither of the parts fit. So it looks like I'll be walking to work tomorrow in 44 degree weather. Lovely.

The Red Lion

I just got back from an amazing bar in Takasaki called the Red Lion. I think it is going to become a regular haunt for me. It felt so much like home I could have wept. For starters it is an Irish bar and it serves fantastic fish and chips with real malt vinegar! All the writing in the place was in English and there was even live music. The band consisted of a Japanese man who played guitar and a Japanese woman would was on an accordion! They played some super awesome jigs that I tapped my foot too as I drank my imported beer. Mmm, Heineken, I didn't realise I missed you until I found you again!