First post.

Hello one and all.

For the purpose of keeping people I care about informed about my life here in Japan, I've created this blog. I decided to keep it separate from my livejournal because that one is more....raw I suppose. So this will be about all my experiences and stuff as more of a record. It's finny because I'm also keeping a physical journal...but I digress.

So anyway, let the experiences begin!

I've been here nearly a month so far, but Japan is on summer vacation during much of july and august, so today was my first day of teaching. I was REALLY nervous but it ended up working out really well! I had to give a little speech at the opening ceremony, which was nerve-wracking since I was up on a stage all alone, but luckily it was not my first time on a stage (understatment, haha) so I was able to pull it together fairly well, make my speech in Japanese and then go back to the lunchroom to set up my powerpoint.

Which brings me to my next comment. Everyone was seriously impressed that I made a powerpoint. I guess I took it for granted that EVERY PROF EVER does powerpoint presentations so I thought it would actually be a little boring, but they loved it! I basically put a buncha goofy pictures of my family on there and spoke in really slow english for 25 min and they ate it up. The third year students (like american 9th graders) were less enthusiastic even though they speak better english, which I found odd, but the 2nd years were awesome. I really think I'm going to like this job.

After classes were done I was feeling pretty good, then we had school lunch. School lunch in Japan is strange but extremely efficient. All the teachers and students help set the table and serve all the food! They also help clean up afterwards so it goes REALLY quickly! Today we had veggie curry and rice with like...some salad made from tuna, cucumber and tomato. It was actually really good! Better than anything I ever got from the lunch line in US middle schools. So after looking clueless for a while and asking people to please tell me what to do to help clean up, it was done. People are generally really nice to me but I can't help feeling like a dolt when I don't know what to do and end up standing there looking lost. I'm sure that will pass at some point....right? (Studies on culture shock say no. Haha.)

Then what....oh yeah! After lunch I had some down time...which is always kinda boring so I wrote a couple emails and tried to read some memos that people gave me. They try to keep me in the loop but my Japanese reading skills are crap. (Thanks kanji. *death glare*) So I usually just end up asking people anyway. they should just stop making hand outs for me....it would save paper, haha! But after the downtime, it was time for a school assembly, where I found out that in two weeks' time we're having School Sports Day. Basically the whole school divides up unto two teams and competes in various sporting events. If you ever had field day....it's kinda like that only they take it WAY more seriously and it's hard core. Some of the events look so hard! Also each team is pretty much run by the students and they make up team slogans, uniforms (actually more like accessories in their respective colors) and even a team dance! My favorite english teacher so far, Mohri-sensei is one of the advisors for the blue team, so I stayed with her to watch the 3rd years teach the dance to the 1st and 2nd years. It was awesome! they have thiw whole dance made up including taiko drums and pom poms and flags....it's unreal! I can't imagine american middle school students doing this. But when I told Mohri-sensei I was impressed she looked at me and said really? I thought last year's was way better....so much for that. Haha. we didn't have a lot to do but watch and show our support so I talked with Mohri-sensei about a lot of stuff. Among them food, what american middle school is like and how I'm going to be sad if she leaves next year. She's trying to move back to Mie prefecture, where she grew up because her parents are getting older and one of them is in kinda poor health....but apparently to teach in different prefectures you need to pass their tests to become certified. And apparently Mie's test is a doozy. So she's trying to pass and I hope she does, but if I end up staying two years I would miss her terribly. She speaks the best English of anyone I've met here so far...besides the other JETs, lol.

Wow, this got long really fast. I'll just close with my plans for the week. Tomorrow the students have physical examinations all day so I don't teach, but I will be preparing materials for Wed. Also tomorrow night I'm having my first english conversation "class" with my predecessor's Japanese friends. Really it's nothing official, I talk to these two women in english for about an hour and we will probably have tea, haha. I met them before when my predecessor was still here, but I will probably be a little awkward the first time.

Wednesday I'm going to lease my car finally! Who knows if I'll be able to drive it off the lot, but here's hoping! Keep your fingers crossed! Then Thursday one of the veteran JETs, Rachel is taking me out for karaoke to meet some of her Japanese friends and hopefully to get to know her better too, since I've talked to her for all of about 20 minutes, hah. Friday no plans, but Saturday the same Rachel is taking us out drinking with another of her friends and a bunch of the other JETs from the surrounding areas. I can't wait to walk into an izakaya (Japanese bar) with a troupe of gaijin (foreigners). It always makes people stare!

Okay, all for now! I hope you like this blog! I'll try to make it interesting!