Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Photos
This will be the last post for this journal since my year in Japan has ended. For how the year concluded have a look at this photo album. I won't be writing a long entry about the experience. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Oddities and Other Ends
Without a self-introduction to give, I was curious how classes would be. I had two first-year classes where I felt mostly useless. I was called upon occasionally to repeat the new vocabulary word. "Band." "B-mumble-mumble-d-nd." "Band!" "B-a-o-n-d-mumble." I hope that situation improves.
The other class I had was a third-year. I was able to lead a warm-up game that actually worked. Written on the board was a word for each team. One by one team members would come to the board to write a new word that started with the last letter of the word preceding. Kids liked it, and that's really the most important aspect of these games right now. I need to figure out what is both at their level and engaging. Found one, now I only need a dozen more.
The rest of my day was consumed with speech competition kids (who are just awesome), rain, trying to figure out the activity for tomorrow's 2nd years, and saying goodbye to a friend from home.
Matt, who is currently at his orientation for Fulbright, visited me over the past two days. It was really fun, especially the time when he, I, and Can talked over Skype. It felt like a mini-reunion from senior year. Yesterday evening, Matt, Leslie, and I went out to eat at a nearby restaurant. It was delicious. Edamame, squid, rice, miso soup, chicken, tenpura, eggs, pork cooked to perfection, sake, and Sapporo (support your local brewery!) beer.
That was feast one this week. On Sunday I am going to Nagano with my cooking class to this restaurant
to eat this meal
I am looking forward to it. We will also be going to a museum and a famous shopping district.
To end I must fulfill the title of this post. Japan is odd. Anyone have ideas as to what these are, or why these are?
The other class I had was a third-year. I was able to lead a warm-up game that actually worked. Written on the board was a word for each team. One by one team members would come to the board to write a new word that started with the last letter of the word preceding. Kids liked it, and that's really the most important aspect of these games right now. I need to figure out what is both at their level and engaging. Found one, now I only need a dozen more.
The rest of my day was consumed with speech competition kids (who are just awesome), rain, trying to figure out the activity for tomorrow's 2nd years, and saying goodbye to a friend from home.
Matt, who is currently at his orientation for Fulbright, visited me over the past two days. It was really fun, especially the time when he, I, and Can talked over Skype. It felt like a mini-reunion from senior year. Yesterday evening, Matt, Leslie, and I went out to eat at a nearby restaurant. It was delicious. Edamame, squid, rice, miso soup, chicken, tenpura, eggs, pork cooked to perfection, sake, and Sapporo (support your local brewery!) beer.
That was feast one this week. On Sunday I am going to Nagano with my cooking class to this restaurant
to eat this meal
I am looking forward to it. We will also be going to a museum and a famous shopping district.
To end I must fulfill the title of this post. Japan is odd. Anyone have ideas as to what these are, or why these are?
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Pic-Spam
My first week of teaching is over. I survived, the kids survived, the school came away with minimal damage. Totally not my fault though. On Thursday the typhoon landed in Gunma. Around eleven at night the winds picked up. Small tree branches were stripped from some of the trees at the school, and the tar paper on the roof was blown off. The damage to the roof was the worst since it caused a series of small leaks in the building, and some of the debris hit the school clock, breaking it.
Overall, the storm was no worse than a severe thunderstorm. By Friday morning the wind was gone, and the rain was slight. I spent most of the evening of my first typhoon in downtown Ota at a cooking class. Odelia, another JET, and I have signed up for a weekly lesson. It was a lot of fun. The class is about 10-12 people. Last week we made this:
The thing on the left is my favorite. It is thinly sliced chicken with a layer of seaweed spooned on top, covered in yellow, red, and green peppers, hot green pepper, and cheese. I think I might even be able to reproduce this one. The small bowl at top has pickled vegetables. I won't be making that at home since it takes three days to pickle. The soup in the other bowl was delicious, but requires equipment I don't have.
You might think this post has a lot of images in it. You'd be right, but we are no where close to being done. Today's activity was a walk through my neighborhood with my camera. The walk was delightful. A full two hours of discovering unseen gardens, houses, temples, and staircases. A walking guide to my neighborhood:
Overall, the storm was no worse than a severe thunderstorm. By Friday morning the wind was gone, and the rain was slight. I spent most of the evening of my first typhoon in downtown Ota at a cooking class. Odelia, another JET, and I have signed up for a weekly lesson. It was a lot of fun. The class is about 10-12 people. Last week we made this:
The thing on the left is my favorite. It is thinly sliced chicken with a layer of seaweed spooned on top, covered in yellow, red, and green peppers, hot green pepper, and cheese. I think I might even be able to reproduce this one. The small bowl at top has pickled vegetables. I won't be making that at home since it takes three days to pickle. The soup in the other bowl was delicious, but requires equipment I don't have.
You might think this post has a lot of images in it. You'd be right, but we are no where close to being done. Today's activity was a walk through my neighborhood with my camera. The walk was delightful. A full two hours of discovering unseen gardens, houses, temples, and staircases. A walking guide to my neighborhood:
