掛川 pics

One of my new friends, Mari. Another cricket fan; stayed up until 3 in the morning to hear Michael Vaughn lift the ashes with Al last week. The next day I had 5 ichi nensei classes in row... tiring... but worth it.


My new family! It's a shame the grandmother had left by then or she was the next size down in the line.

On returning home after the weekend I went out with a group of JETs for Nathans birthday. We went local to this tiny Japanese bar and I ended up swapping guitar chops with a 3-toothed Japanese guy and drinking sake. He wanted me to play the blues and he played all this traditional Japanese folk music which was really cool... oh! and House of the Rising Sun too! awesome.
This was before we headed out and presented Nathan with his tea-light and japanese sweetcake. The chap in the background is my other cricket-buddy Al.

掛川homestay

Well, it's been a little hectic since I last posted so several things to report. Last weekend I went to kakegawa (the kanji in the title) gawa means river, not sure about kake... means something like cliff prescipice.
Well it was part of a cultural exchange for the local moon-watching festival. A bunch of JETs congregated and were fed well, and treated kindly. Some of the highlights were teaching my 'Japan Dad' how to say 'alright mate' in a scouse accent, visiting a za-zen temple and trying the meditation, and visiting a wildlife sanctuary/park where I was set upon by birds.
The za-zen was pretty cool, the temple was fairly spectacular and the monk told us... slowly... in japanese... how to prepare ones body and soul to truly achieve za-zen. Then we all sat in seiza (sitting on your knees with your hands in your lap) for 20 minutes trying to empty our minds without falling asleep or cramping up. To make it a little trickier the monk wandered ponderously up and down in frnt of us with a large whacking stick and if we volunteered, or were not concentrating, or were concentrating too much he'd kindly offer unto us a few very hard whacks on our prone vessels. In the photo you can see him demonstrating the whacking motion.
Another interesting part was a dance performed to us by the middle-aged ladies of the local community; it was introduced as a means to prevent senility by encouraging blood flow and suppleness. After a few quick demonstrations it was our turn but alas I have no photos of myself performing... although I was assured by many of the female JETs I had skills! despite looking rather sturn with concentration. Must be the nunchaku training.
Apart from that I spent some 'relax' time with my host family. Nick (his adopted American name after Nick Faldo) his wife and 81 year old mother. He was very amusing and his english was good enough to communicate in fits and bursts. On Sunday morning I was prepared a very healthy sized interpretation of an english fry-up with pastries... wasn't expecting that.

having some problems uploading the photos so will try again tomorrow, anyway it's time for my beddybyes... it's 4 in the morning and I can't get no sleep.

On Cricket...

Jolly good.


Heading off to live with a Japanese family this weekend as part of a cultural exchange festival in Kakegawa. Will hopefully have time to post when I get back on the Sunday or maybe Monday - should be plenty more pictures.
Next week I go to both of my schools sports days, which should be fun - the last two weeks they've been practicing just the cheering every afternoon instead of lessons!

Also, have realised that to leave a comment you had to join and make a blog, sorry about that. I have changed it so you should be able to just leave any comment without problems... I hope. Let me know anyway.

Cheerio - Jyon

Here it Comes... Again

"Who is this?"

This week was my first actually teaching. I'm shattered. I managed to pick up a cold and sore throat even in the humid 30 degree heat. So my first lesson for each class was my introduction lesson where I was to introduce myself in such a manner as to pique the interest of my students, in a way that they could understand, without scaring any of them... Easy Peasy! Ha!

It was an interesting learning curve and by the end of the week I was kicking ass, on automatic pilot, forgetting nothing and adding improv sketches as they came to me. The first lesson however, was horrible. The differences between my two schools widened like a chasm unto the very depths of a place so deep so as to be undiscoverable without the aid of a fatal fall. My ni-nensei (2nd year students) at my main school are some of the worst in the Hamamatsu area, infamous throughout the land. Well... perhaps I exaggerate somewhat. But in comparison, my ichi-nensei (1st years) at my good school are angels of the Lord. Before I stepped foot in the building on the Thursday two kids had come up and asked me if I knew Steven Gerrard, in English! I caught one kid ferociously rubbing out the grafiti he found on his desk at the start of the lesson. They respond, listen and TRY. It is a fabulous way to end each week.
My introduction involved me moving around the classroom showing pictures of the Queen, Harry Potter, David Beckham, my family, after sketching out my Mum (with long-blonde hair, like me) and my Dad (with a beard, like me) and then combining both pictures to make...ME, they liked that one. The next part gave me my first shock. I showed a picture of LFC, "Do you know Liverpool soccer team?" blank stares, "Do you know Michael O-wen?" ... blank stares. Then as I move past one kid I just hear him turn to his mate and snort something like "HA, Michael Owen doesn't play for Liverpool anymore, he plays for Newcastle!" in japanese. A little frustrating...
Then I asked if they knew what Liverpool was famous for, if they knew the Beatles, and if they liked them. I received hugely different responses depending on the class. I proceeded regardless to perform Here Comes the Sun, with a fill-in-the-missing words game. This had miraculous abilities to quieten even the most rumbustious class to silence; it was quite eerie.
The teacher that I teach with on the Friday even went out and bought a bass guitar and amp so that he could play with me in the lessons! It was actually really good fun, he's pretty good, and the students cheered for encores! Suffice to say, that did not occur in my main school - although the ichi nensei did seem to enjoy and were quick to agree to me offering a second chance to listen.
Even with the great response of my ichi nensei, after singing Here Comes the Sun 40 times with increasing pain in my throat I have gained a different appreciation of the song than I had at the start of the week.

Then I moved onto asking them what sports they liked. I went through each one, hands were raised, opinions were freely and more co-ercedly offered. Then, "Do you like cricket?" "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhh??" which is the sound of surprise in Japan! When 40 kids make it in unison it's something like a motorcycle revving.
I went on to explain that cricket was an English sport that was 500 years old. I demonstrated (with the aid of my guitar) how we strike the ball with reference to baseball. This generally went down well too - I don't think too many of their Japanese teachers wield instruments with such abandon!
I also demonstrated the bowling technique with a lightweight pink toy ball down the isles of children as they grimaced or lit up with small wonder.

I ended each class by telling them "I can fly." writing it on the board, and asking them if they understood. Tabimasu!
"Do you believe?" hands up etc. Then I showed them the opening picture on this blog of me floating in the lotus position. Even my bad kids made the motorcycle noise at that one.
Next week... I let them do the talking and do a lesson on what they like and did in the summer holidays.


This is the view of Hamamatsu from the large tower (ACT tower) that is supposed to resemble a Harmonica –Hamamatsu is the city of music, apparently– I posted a picture of the tower last week. It's pretty impressive and dominates the city being about 5 times bigger than anything else for maybe 50 miles. You can even see my home to the left middle side of the picture. Just find the red sided building and find the nearest tower block above it.

I also found the time to go to Shorinji-Kempo this week –a Japanese adaptation of Shaolin Kung-Fu– with the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) at my main school. It was fun. I couldn't understand any of the commands so I just followed everyone else, but with some success I think. I was acclaimed a natural, although the exercise made me sweat like I have done before in my life. I think my JTE was mildly concerned, and asked me several times if I was alright. "atsui desune!" my only response. Afterwards I was informed in conversation with my teacher, and his friends that I needed a Japanese wife, that I should organise an enkai (official drinking party) and invite many girls... and them. They did not inform me where to find the ladies, so I guess I'll wait...

Typhoons, Earthquakes & Ze Germans

I have been in a Carole King song! I have felt the earth move under my feet! I was on the 7th floor of the BoE (Board of Education) building having a polite little doze, my head resting against the wall. Very quickly I came over all peculiar, I felt like I was sea sick. I sat upright, along with everyone else in the room and we sat with slightly concerned expressions wordlessly communicating "eh?". Then before anyone could actually say anything, the room started to sway and the lamp hanging from the ceiling started to swing disconcertingly. Everyone braced themselves, turned a little paler and with an inhale of breath... bugger. And it kept swaying... and kept swaying. I think maybe it lasted a minute or so, but it could have only seemed to last that long. The supervisor ran through from the other room and asked if everyone was alright, televisions were turned on and it was relayed to us that it had happened on the other side of Tokyo.
They had picked that morning to inform us that where we are, in Shizuoka, is one of the most tectonically active regions of Japan. Not only that but we were expecting a rather large earthquake... approximately 10 times larger than the Kobe earthquake. It is, I believe off the scale. The region apparently suffers one of these earthquakes every 100-150 years. The last one... why that would have been in 1854... 151 years ago!
At one of my friends' schools his supervisor cheerfully exclaimed, "If we are in the school hall, we will all die TOGETHER!"
So; who wants dibs on my bike/guitar/CDs?

I also experienced my first Typhoon last week. They knew it was coming for about 3 days and was expected to arrive at noon; so when I arrived at my school on the Friday morning, they asked, "So, how did you come to school today? Ah soo desune? by bicycle! Hmmm... I think... very dangerous... so perhaps, you should not feel bad, to leave early today... yes, but shhh! it is secret!"
So after whaling it home against some pretty hefty winds at lunchtime, I collapsed into my air-conditioning and put on some Sufjan Stevens to await the storm.

The winds started picking up outside, and the rain turned "on". I watched as it passed, horizontally, past my balcony, safe in the confines of my tatami room. It lasted a good five hours or so, so I made a cup of tea... and had some biscuits.


After the hole-up it was felt by all that a drink was in order... so to Mein Schloss! A German beer hall (sort of) that brews its own beer, and even has an oom-pah oom-pah style German brass military band. Only they're Japanese, and so is everbody else. The actual building has been made to resemble from within and without a castle (the Schloss of the title) but I'm not entirely sure that a castle was ever constructed with efficiency of space taken to such Japanese proportions. An interesting concept, but oddly compelling. Their "dark beer" is delightful and I would recommend.


...and some more pics