My first day off and going shopping

So I had my first day off all on my own. Right now its pretty lonely since I dont know anyone and I have no cell phone to contact people. All my new friends from training got shipped out to their schools. I am sitting here in my room staring at the wall since I can't understand tv. I probably should study Japanese since I told like 8 people today that I dont know Japanese when they tried to talk to me.

It took me 4 hours today to buy the following 3 items:

Alarm Clock
Soap
Groceries

I already knew where to find the grocery store so that was pretty easy but the other two took some time. First of all think about the way you would buy something at home. If I wanted an alarm clock I would probably go to Target, Best Buy or any home or electronic store. Now image there is no Target, Best Buy and you dont know any electronic or home stores. What would you do? Well how about try the newspapaer, oh wait I cant read, what about the internet, uhm yeah that reading thing again. Being illiterate sucks....I need to start studying.

So I went to plan B, randomly walk around town and see if I could find a store. Since I couldnt read anything or ask anyone for help, I pretty much just wandered into every store I saw and tried to find it. Okayama has a crapload of camera shops, clothing stores, cell phone shops and places to eat. The soap wasn't too hard to find but once I got to a walgreens type shop I had to spend like 10 minutes trying to read the box and make sure it really was soap. And no, they dont have dove or any of my normal brands and what is the Japanese word for soap? I didn't know this morning but I just looked it up and its called sekken.

Now the alarm clock took forever, I walked for hours trying to find an electronic store. I walked into every department store and every floor looking for one, but I couldn't find anything. Finally I lucked out and walked into the right store and they had 3 alarm clocks. I bought the one that was in english of course.

Then I found a suit store and decided to buy some work clothes. All the measurements are in cm and I didnt know my size. I used my broken Japanese to get someone to help me and measure me. I am a 43cm neck and 86cm arm length. All together my trip cost me 10,000 yen or a $100 for two shirts, soap, alarm clock and grocercies.

Then walked back to my house and decided to write about my small victory. Away mission successful captain....make is so...haha

My apartment

I finally moved into my place and good news, it isnt the closet that I saw on the website. It isnt big compared to my places in America but it is big enough for one person. I have to sleep on the ground and put my bed away each morning. I think the apartment is about 400 sf with the main room at 15'x15' and the kitchen and bathroom taking up an additional 100 sf. My apartment is about a 15 minute walk from my school and I live on the 2nd floor of a 5 story building. I have the end unit and nobody is below me but the bike parking area. I get a free wireless connection in here so I am pretty happy about that.

My First Day at the Office

I had my first day of work today. The office is really small and 6 people share a space smaller than my bosses office back home. Suddenly my 9'x10' cubicle back home doesnt feel so small. But the nice thing is everyone is close together and everyone is working hard at the same time. Sometimes I need quite time and move to my classroom to catch some peace and quite. However its not the same kind of noise when 4 girls are talking japanese and you have no idea what they are saying. The sounds quickly becomes background noise and I can ignore it enough to get some work done. So far the work has been really fun and easy, all I had to do today was draw a board with my name, place of birth, hobbies, previous job and countries I have traveled. Everyone was really impressed by my drawings which I find funny since its not my best work and alot of Japanese are far better artist than me.

I have a pretty easy schedule averaging about 3-4 classes per day except for sat which has 6-7 classes. Since teaching english is a service industry we are bound by the times that people are available so the busy times are at lunch time and after work. I start work at 12:45pm (Japanese are never late and you are expected to be at work early, so no more foster city time) from Tuesday to Saturday and get off work around 10pm.

I wear a suit and tie to work everyday and spend most of my time talking to students and observing my fellow teachers classes. The job doesnt seem very hard but like anything you need to get used to it. So far its alot more fun and doesnt really feel like I am working. I am worried about Thursday when the teacher I am replacing leaves since the guy has the job down and it's easy to just copy what he is doing.

I took some photos of my office so you can see what my office looks like. I have my own classroom and I am allowed to decorate it anyway I like. I have 6 co-workers: Kyle is from Texas and I am replacing him, John Paul is from New York and he is the other foreign teacher, Chihiro and Kaori are japanese teachers and teacher the lower level students, Shuko is the boss and Keiko is the assistant manager.

I spend most of my day preparing for my lessons, coloring drawing and reviewing grammer points. Then when lessons start we are required to sit in the lobby and talk to students before and after class. Other job requirements are interviewing potential students and consoling students on how to study more effectively.

Right now I still need help on teaching but I think after a few weeks I should have it down. Keep your figures crossed since the rest of this week should get interesting when Kyle leaves by myself.

Celebration on Successfully Completing Training

Training has been completed and I now have the tools necessary to be a successful Aeon teacher. We had a small graduation ceremony during which we received our Aeon pins while everyone in the room hummed the graduation song. Of course, after that it was time to celebrate!!! You can view my flickr set for this event here

Off to welcome party number 1.

I met up with my fellow foreign teacher John Paul and our Japanese counter part Chihiro for the first time sat night. I meet them at the train station and rode a bike to my welcome party. I had not rode a bike in almost 10 plus years but like the old saying goes, its like riding a bike you never forget. My welcome party was also a going away party for the guy I am replacing Kyle. Kyle is moving to Kobe to continue his teaching and marry his Japanese girlfriend. Both Kyle and John Paul are big tall guys well over 6’ and tower over everyone in the town.

I then tried my best to learn everyone’s name and learn a little bit about each person. Learning people’s names are difficult since I have not heard a name like that ever and often had to say it slowly and spell it out. Another difficult part of Japanese names is everyone name is similar characters mixed together in different spots so all the name sound the same. For Example the character “ko” means child and for some reason all girls names end in “ko” so I met a yumiko, akiko, yukio, yuko, maiko, mariko and for males I met a lot of “hiro” masahiro, hiroyuki, hiromasa, yoshihiro, yoshi and a bunch of names I clearly cannot remember for lack of even understanding what they told me.

The party was a lot of so fun, I was the center of attention and I loved it, usually I am used to having all eyes on me but I can get used to it. Everyone wanted to talk to the American and practice there English. I had to give a quick speech which everyone thought was great. But I had to behave since the manager was there and since she is my boss I wanted to be on good behavior.

Off to party number 2 where the craziness ensued. Before I got there the other teacher came back from Nomi Hodai or all you can drink. Since I was on my best behavior at my party I was the most sober one. We then signed up for Nomi Hodia at Karaoke which came out to be about $30 for 2 hours. It was our last night out together and everyone decided to get super faded. Robert from Missouri turned out to be a kick ass singer and did a great Axle Rose impersonation, we even had some Japanese people come out and he had some groupies. The girls Lauren and Jacky were off the hook and sang great. Alex and I sang “it ain’t no fun if the homies can have none” by Snoopy Doggy Dog. I met a new Aeon teacher from Okayama Ikimai named Brian from Los Angeles who is a cool guy. Dushan and Brian had a drinking contest for “Alpha Male status” with the biggest penis. Dushan won since he spilled both drinks all over himself without actually drinking it all. After he finished, he spiked the glasses on the ground like a running back that had just scored the winning touchdown. Half the people died laughing and the other half was appaulled. Being the drunken bastard I am, I found the stunt to be hilarious but also realized that I need to sober up and become the voice of reason.

Usually when something gets broken it’s time to go home so we decided to move to the next party. Unfortunately the other half of the party thought Dushan’s stunt was not very funny and one guy decided to insult him. Words were exchanged and it was time to play referee. I decided to distract Dushan by having him rough house with me and we decided to play who can hit each other in the shoulder the hardest. After our game I just heard “hey Chris hold my beer” I then heard footsteps and decided I might need to have some evasive maneuvers. Dushan had decided to tackle me and when I moved out of the way he did a swan dive in to the bikes. After that it was time to go, Dushan had hit drunken terror level 5 red or “severe possibility of drunkenness and stupidity.” After that I played Baysitter got everyone home and it was time to go to bed.

Explanation of Teaching at Aeon

So everyone asked me before I left, “Do you speak Japanese?” and wondered how I could teach English if I didn’t speak Japanese. Well I now know the secret to Aeon teaching since I have completed 4 days of training and had my first day of actually mock teaching to actual Japanese students.

First foreign teachers are used as a marketing tool and a goal for the lower students to work to. The lower level students have a Japanese Teacher that helps them get up to a higher level and tells them if they work hard, they will be lucky enough to move up the foreign teacher. So we only teach students at the intermediate and advanced level students. Another one of our main duties is to interview prospective students or talk to people thinking about signing up. Aeon is first and foremost a business and makes its money by the new subscribes and return customers.

It is funny being a novelty here for speaking a language everyone I know speaks fluently. They all call me Kevin sensei which covets great respect in Japan. The classes are actually quite fun and engaging; you feel more like a cheerleader and facilitator than an actual teacher. The classes are very strictly standardized down to the minute but leave room for adlib and adjustment to your student’s level.

Right now the amount of information is almost overwhelming with having to learn Japanese, get used to my living environment, get used to jet lag, learn to teach and learning to speak “classroom English.” Classroom English is basically simplified English with hand gestures and signal to help your students understand what you are saying. For example instead of saying, “ok class, please open you text books to page 23 and Mr. Okada can you please read the instructions for the class out loud, the rest of you follow along and listen.” This is overly complicated for the class and almost nobody will understand you, instead you gesture (pointing is considered rude) Mr Okada read page 23. Sounds easy but the next time you give instructions to someone think about all the additional words and redundant words you used to give simple instructions.

I learned a lot of great things from my boss at Wilsey Ham on how to be a great employee and worker so it was interesting to see this new work environment and culture. For one, they are way more sensitive to business ethics, and being polite and rude at the work place. Such as you should never interrupt your boss if he/she is giving you criticism or justify why you made a decision. Instead you must listen to the whole suggestion and ask a question at the end that makes the manager see your point of view and let them give you another suggestion. For example if the boss comes in an tells me I need to speed my class up and not spend so much time correcting my students, I shouldn’t say well My Okada is kind of slow and I need to give him extra help. In stead I should listen to the whole suggestion and ask “well if Mr Okada is not getting the material and holding up my class how do you suggest I handle the situation?” This of course is expected only with manager and apprentice and people of the same level are allowed to debate. So basically the Boss must be treated with respect at all times with a more formal set of rules than back at home.

In Japan it is considered very disrespectful to be late ever. So everyone shows up to work 10-15 minutes early. I think this will help me since I am always late. No more Foster City time in Japan.

Everyone is also very picky about being well groomed and dress code. I wear an suit and tie to work every day. So after each day at work you should say "Otsukare sama deshita" or thank you for your hard work.

first night out drinking

So suprise surprise...I had my first night out drinking.

So our trainer had to show us where the supermarket was and how to buy food. Don't laugh because you would be the same way. When is the last time you had no idea where the grocery store was and when you got there you had no idea what anything was. It took me like 5 mins to read all the labels on the milk and find out which one I wanted. I'm still not sure which one I got but when I drank it, it tasted like milk. So after watching Lost in Translation I just had to try Sunatory Whisky for quite times. Of course I drank half the bottle by myself pre partying with my new friends. Seemed like a good idea at the time!!

Then we went to an all you can drink place. Thats right all you can drink, they would never have that in America because with my friends the place would be broke. It was 1200 yen or about $12 for 90 minutes. We left there after about an hour but that was enough. I learned a few drinking terms like "Sugai" slang for fuck yeah when drinking or Gozoropu shimi wataru which has no translation but means something like this is so refreshing it is moving through out my body. We yelled this after chugging your beer. We then went to sing Karaoke and drink more. Karaoke here is all you can drink and sing by the hour. It cost us about $25 for 2 plus hours. This is when the night gets alittle fuzzy. I carried my new friend Dushan who weighs like 220lbs around and we tried to borrow a bike to take home. But my new friend Tim from Englad said we were being "dodgy" and we shouldnt be taking peoples bikes. Voice of reason turned on and we left the bike.

So I then pushed my friend Chris from Canada into a bunch of girls because he had a t-shirt that says accepting applications for a japanese girlfriend. I have the same shirt in blue. It didnt work because I pushed him too hard and he hit the pavement. I felt really bad, so sorry Chris.

We then proceeded to wander around the town and I waved to girls driving down the street. Some girls pulled over and starting talking to us. I was cold so I asked if I could hang out in there car. Really I was cold, I swear...I packed all my jackets in my other bag and everyone told me that japan is super hot in May. Then Dushan and I spent the next 30 minutes trying to convince these girls to drive us home but Dushan has no game. Oh well, it made a good story. I wish I had a picture of that.

just arrived in Kansai

So I just got off the plane from SFO and I am starting to realize just how screwed I am going to be. I watched Lost in Translation on the ride over (thanks Wilsey Ham for the gift) and I am already starting to totally sympathize with Bill Murray's character. Even when people are speaking English to me I am not 100% sure what they are asking me. For example my guide who is totally fluent in English asked me if I had met my cousin before coming on the trip. I replied of course he is my cousin and I have known him all my life. She replied with, "no did you meet up with him before you went on this trip." Also she asked me something else where the L's and R's were totally mixed up and I had no idea what she was asking me. If you havent seen the movie watch it again and think about me being Bill Murray. Maybe I'll get lucky and find Scarlett Johannson to hang out with.

BBQ and Matrix pics are up in flickr

Here's some of the BBQ pics There is a slideshow mode on top right if you want to use that, or you could even leave a comment if you prefer Here are the friday night Matrix pix as well.

You can leave a comment on any of the pictures or even leave a comment below on this blog post

(this post by Jeremiah, who is Kevin's personal web geek and getting Kevin all setup)