Typhoon, typhoon, typhoon!

Typhoon Dianmu on its way


Bye bye typhoon!



Well, it's about 30 degrees here today,whew!! Living in Nagoya in the summer is like permanently being in a sauna! The piccies are of the typhoon that just roared through here yesterday. A few people died further south in Japan, but nothing major here. Just a lot of wind and rain, and downtown Nagoya was littered with naked 100 yen umbrella frames. Why you would even bother with an umbrella in a typhoon is beyond me! I like storms, so I was enjoying watching it pelt down from my balcony window. And, as you can see from the second photo, when it did clear up just before sunset, it made for a very pretty sky. I can now say I've experienced a typhoon!!

Had to go do the immigration thing last week, and get my working holiday visa renewed. Oh. What. Fun. They open at 9am, and I was told by my friends to get there about 8:30, to go line up with all the Thai hookers and Brazilian overstayers. Well, I got there about 8:20, and there were already about 50 people there! Anyway, got inside, and managed to stand in 2 wrong lines before I got to the right one (no one there speaks any English, which is a little odd for an immigration office, don't you think?!). Had to fill out tons of forms (luckily in English and Japanese), and I ended up being there until 10am. Still have to come back this week to get the actual stamp in my passport. Oh the joy, especially on my day off! At least I'm still legal to be here!!

So, as a present for standing in the never-ending line, I went to UniQlo (cheap but nice clothes), and bought a yukata. It's like a summer style kimono, very light weight fabric. It's a beautiful red with a grey pattern, and the obi (belt) is a really pretty yellow. It even comes with a cute little matching purse! When I can figure out how to put it on properly, I'm going to have a lot of fun wearing it! I can't wait, it's really pretty (and cheap, only about $40, whereas the big department store ones are about $300). I got some matching wooden sandals too, quite cute. It's very common to see people wearing yukata in the summer, and it's almost mandatory for attending things like summer fireworks festivals. There are many of these festivals around the area, and unlike western fireworks displays, these ones go for about 2-3 hours at a time!! I saw some out my window last weekend, pretty amazing! Huge fireworks too, not just little crackers!!

Oh, I went a little shopping mad last weekend, and also bought an electronic dictionary (a Canon Wordtank 3000). It's really cool, I'm going to get a lot of use out of it! I can even look up kanji in it, which is really really useful! I've decided to go for the Japanese Language Proficiency exam in December, but I haven't decided which level to study for. Level 4 is the easiest, but I think I could probably pass level 3 if I put a lot of time into studying between now and then. Still doing the kanji studying thing, but I think I'm going to change my method a little. I'm going to use the techniques I learned from the "Remembering the Kanji" book, but I'm going to do it for the kanji I need to know for the exam (so I won't be studying in the order the book dictates). I am remembering the kanji as the book promised, but if I'm going to spend that much time studying, I would like to take an exam and get something out of it at the end (other than the ability to actually read what's around me, that is!). I wasn't too fussed about taking the exam, but all my friends said it looks great on your resume to have a JLPT certificate. So, we'll see how it goes!

Playing for a living

Nagoya city

The picture is of a little buddha statue near the International Centre downtown. He's really little, and just kind of perched on the edge of the sidewalk at the base of a building. Not sure what the little bib and hat signify, but it's cute anyway. It always has fresh flowers in his little pot.
Had a nice day teaching today. Nothing amazing, no one got any amazing insights into the english language or anything like that, but it was a nice day. I had some really cute kids today, and am finally learning how to cope with the ones who misbehave or whatever. I think a lot of the time, they just want attention when they misbehave, so I'm trying to give them lots of positive encouragement when they do the right thing. They now know "high five" and "low five" (even the 3 year olds!!), and some of them have learned to give me the thumbs up and thumbs down when they are asked "Do you like ..." - they look so cute giving me this big thumbs up going "Yes I do!". One of my two year olds did it last Saturday, and all the mothers in the room completely lost it - very funny! Especially since the mothers laughed so loud, the little girl got a fright and thought she had done something wrong!! So cute!!
I don't know what it is about Japanese kids and smacking your ass; whenever I run around the room with my kids, there's always at least one or two who chase close enough behind me that they start smacking me like to make me go faster or something. I don't remember my kindy teacher very well, but I'm pretty sure I didn't smack her on the ass when we played games!! Must be a cultural thing. The kids think it is absolutely hysterical, they are laughing so hard I think they are going to throw up! And for the record, I don't have a big ass, so it's not like I'm J.Lo or anything like that. I guess though, when you're that little, my butt is at about eye level with most of them when we are standing. Sigh. Certainly makes for a funny class!
I know a lot of teachers complain about feeling like a dancing monkey at the front of class, doing the songs and games and stuff, but I can't figure out what the problem is. I'm getting paid really good money to act like a clown, sing songs, and play games for most of my day, so what's so bad about that? It's like being a big kid (honestly, I don't think I ever really grew up! Do you ever wonder when you are finally going to feel "grown up"?). So, as I read in Japanzine as a quote for a photograph, "Teaching English in Japan can sometimes make you feel like a performing monkey - but let's face it, kids love the circus!". I completely agree (except for the feeling "like a performing monkey" part)! Here's a link to the Japanzine article with the photo (called "Kinder Kids"). I guess it just depends on your personality, but I grew up on a very strict diet of Monty Python and the Three Stooges (thanx Dad!!), so my general outlook on life is a little whacked anyway I think!
So, all in all, a good day. Some days are better than others, but at least the variety is interesting!!

Kanji Crazy!!

A ghost story, Nagashima Spa Land

This photo is from outside the haunted house at Nagashima Spa Land. Apparently it tells the story of a biwa (guitar-like instrument) player, who is very good. A ghost gets jealous of his skill, and keeps trying to haunt him. To protect himself, the biwa player writes kanji characters (Japanese characters that originally came from China) all over himself as a form of incantation, to prevent the ghost from being able to get to him. However, the biwa player forgets to cover his ears, and the ghost is able to find him. Then the ghost cut his ears off, because they weren't protected. Can't remember what happens next, but I assume the ghost killed the biwa player, judging by the big rock in the ghost's hand in the background. Apologies if I got the story a little wrong! Anyway, the display was really neat, and the ghost kept popping up from behind the biwa player every minute or so!
So, speaking of kanji, I'm trying to learn kanji at the moment. I'm really not sure why, as I can barely say simple sentences, and I feel like maybe I should learn more basic Japanese before I start jumping into the characters. I'm really finding it hard to make heads or tails of a lot of things I need to buy at the grocery store and drug store and such, so I figured that if maybe I learned kanji, then even if I still can't speak very well, at least going shopping and reading signs and such won't be such a major obstacle. So, I've started work on a book called "Remembering the Kanji 1" by James Heisig. So far so good, I've remembered about 180 kanji just in the past 4 days or so. I have no idea what they are pronounced like though, as this book just tells you a general meaning for each character, and how to write it correctly (you have to remember in which order the strokes go). So, in theory you learn all 2000 or so basic kanji in this way, and then go back (with the 2nd book) to learn how to pronounce each character (and most have at least 3 different pronunciations, depending on where the character is in relation to other ones).The author's theory is that it is easier to remember all the kanji, then attach the extra info about pronunciation to each character later, rather than trying to remember all the info about each kanji all at once. So, obviously a lot of work! We'll see if it works! A friend is learning the kanji the traditional way (in the order they teach it at school in Japan, and learning the writing and reading at the same time). I told her I would race her!
It seems like a lot of people want to study for the Japanese proficiency tests, which means that usually you end up studying the kanji that will be covered on your test. However, these are in no logical order, so I think it is maybe a more difficult way than how I am learning. If I am going to put time into studying the kanji, I might as well study all 2000 common ones in an order that makes it easier to remember, rather than dividing them up into random chunks as dictated by the exams. I want to be proficient in Japanese, I'm not sure I care about the exams. As an english teacher, I see a lot of students do really well on their exams, but still have no confidence to actually use the language. I don't want to be like that - I want to communicate!
So, for those of you who are also learning Japanese, and especially the kanji, ganbatte ne!!!!