Christmas!

So today was my school's Christmas party. It was basically 3 hours of children eating candy. My boss bought SOOO much candy for them that I ended up spending 4 hours decorating the school with it. I had to get 'creative'. Some of my best inventions were the Japanese radish/lolly-pop Christmas tree and the hanging garden of donuts. All in all it was a fun afternoon. Japanese kids (like most kids, I guess) get incredibly shy around people they don't know. All of my usually bouncing-off-the-walls kids were quite subdued. This was a good thing because I don't think I could have handled 30 of my regularly behaving students. The cutest by far was the little girl named Risa who showed up dressed as Chip from Disney's Chip N' Dale. No one is really sure why she did it though....

Groceries

So I was walking through the grocery store the other day and thought to myself that I might be taking it for granted. What I mean is that, all of the strange things that I used to be in shock over, have become common place. So, in honour of all the weird things, both good and bad about the Japanese grocery store, I brought my camera with me. I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted to, due to the strange looks I got and the eventual "no no no, dame (itself meaning, no)" from the employees, I wasn't able to get all the pictures I wanted. But here is what I've got.


For starters, Japan is much more 'seasonal' with food than we are in Canada. When a season for a fruit or vegetable begins, you will see nothing but that fruit or vegetable until it's time is up. October? GRAPES and PERSIMMON! Now, I didn't even know what I persimmon was until I was in Japan. I had heard of it, but never actually seen one. It kind of tastes like an apple and a cantalope together. I loved them the first week that I had them. I haven't eaten them ever since. In autumn, after all of the leaves have fallen off the trees, they bright orange fruit will remain. They stay on the trees all winter if they are left uneaten. They also eat these in January around New Years. What they do, is they pick the fruit, peel it, dip it in alcohol to clean it, then hang it back up outside. They leave it in the wind and the cold to try. By January, they are ready to be eaten. I will put up more pictures of them when they are in the grocery store. They are covered in a white mold that, apparently tastes best when it doesn't rain a lot while they are hanging. I haven't tried dried persimmon yet, but one of my students says she makes them herself in her garden and they taste great. I guess this will be the year I try them!




Grocery stores here also sell gift fruit. That is, fruit that is ridiculously expensive. It's pretty fruit, as far as fruit can be pretty, and I'm sure it is delicious. The best 'deal' I've seen so far was a box of 10 cherries for about $65. I was disapointed this week because the best I could find was a bunch of grapes for $25.

The Shakes

So, in bed the other night, I was suddenly awakend by a strange shaking feeling... I sat up and my window was rattling and the ground was moving - I didn't think I was crazy. It was just after 3am, so I hadn't put it past me that I was just imagining it and went back to bed.

I went to work the next day and asked my students and my boss if they had felt anything. Everyone said that they had not. Now, not one to give up, I decided to look further into things. After searching the internet and trying to find some source for earthquake information, I found a great site: www.tenki.jp/qua/index.html

Without knowing Japanese, you can still look at the map, and see the most recent earthquake to hit Japan! Sometimes it's updated by the minute, if it's a busy quake day. Since I've been here I have felt 3 quakes, but the one at night was the strongest I have felt yet. Here's the proof! My house is a bit to the right of the white X

Happy Thanksgiving!

RICE!

So, one thing that I have noticed since I arrived, is that there are plenty of rice fields around my house. I live in an area of the town of Kanami called Tagata (田方). This means, 'the way of fields'. I now understand why we are called that. I luckily was able to capture some pictures of the fields next door to me before my camera died. So, here is my tribute to rice. It's a nice view when the sky is clear and you can see the mountains rising in the background. Within the next month, the rice harvest begins, so I won't be able see this beautiful view for much longer. I hope you like it! Oh and I tried eating some grains of rice off the plant. I kind of suggest doing it, I also kind of don't.

Appologies and Greetings

Well here it is: my first post in Japan. Sorry for this taking so long, but after landing, getting settled and starting my new job, trying to translate Japanese blogspot enough to understand why my password wasn't working was falling low on my list of to dos.

Fortunately, the problem has been fixed and blog after blog of weekly news will now be pouring onto a computer screen near you! I still don't have the Internet in my own appartment yet, so that means pictures will be limited until I can get that to happen, but while I am at working (and not working) I am free to blog and email to my hearts content. I have been provided a computer to use for the year, but it won't be until October that my internet connection is set up.

In the mean time, here is my contact info for the land of the rising sun:

Telephone: 01181559797883 (this is the entirety of what you have to dial from Canada)
Email Address: caelanbowers@gmail.com
Address: Mezon Mamiya A-202, 651-1 Mamiya, Kannami-chou, Tagata-gunn, Shizuoka-ken, Japan

Please feel free to call me or email me or mail me! I like getting letters, so please feel free to mail me anything (seriously anything, a grocery store receipt, a bread bag tie, I'm not picky)! Oh and please keep in mind that whatever time it is in Ontario, it is 13hrs ahead in Japan.

Sooo hopefully I'll do this again soon with more details!

Talk Soon,

Mac School

So, although I haven't actually put my towel on the other side of the pool yet, I have received a little information about the school I'm going to be teaching at. I'm told it's about 80% adults and mostly just conversation (SO much easier). The school is called Mac School which I find to be a bit of an omen, just graduation from well... Mac School this year.


If you want to learn more about the place, then don't click on this link: http://www17.ocn.ne.jp/~mac.s/. Once you get past all of the cheesy graphics and confusing links there isn't really much left. I speak Japanese and still didn't learn anything! But, with a few lucky clicks you can find some real pictures of students and a few of the school itself.

Happy Clicking!