March 2009

Time to catch you all up! March is only...actually, not even half over, but here's what's been on tap so far this month. On March 1st I headed into Tokyo, Roppongi to be precise, with my salsa class, to practice live what we've been learning over the past 5-6 months. If I ever get my hands on my classmate's photos from the club (called "El Cafe Latino"), I'll post them. My only personal pictures are from the dinner we went to together beforehand at a Chinese restaurant. Please take careful note of the decorations...and that this place was our teacher's choice. :-) We all just followed along lemming-style.

"The Spider" at Roppongi Hills, a popular meeting point, for obvious reasons. Tokyo Tower is in the background.

Hari, Gero (our 'sensei') and last minute addition, frequent Tokyo salsa club goer, Yuki.Anna, on the left, I'd never met before, but she's a friend of Lucia's (middle) from Poland. They are on the same internship program. Sabi is on the right.Yuki, Gaspar and Sonit.

Please focus your attention for the next two photos on the restaurant's unique decoration scheme.

Ah, I hear "Salsa class?!? What?!" coming over the Ethernet. As fits with the rest of my life, here's the story on this random occurrence:

While sitting at a local tavern (I'm calling it that because it sounds more fantasy-esque, good for story-telling) last September, a friend of a friend of a friend suddenly asked me and my friend Laura (also an Assistant Language Teacher) if we like to dance salsa. Gero (as this friend of a friend of a friend is named, I eventually learned) loves to dance salsa, and while he was in Japan doing his 6-month internship with BOSCH (in Higashi-Matsuyama, a city about 20 minutes east of my town, where Laura and all the other class members live), he thought he might teach a salsa dance class if he could find anyone interested. He'd already talked to a few fellow interns, but needed a few more girls. Laura and I were game, so last October-ish, we became honorary members of the BOSCH intern crew and helped start up the salsa class. There are only about 8 members, but we've been meeting once a week almost every week, braving the cold karate practice room to master whatever dance steps Gero thinks he can teach us. Seeing as how foreigners are rare in my town, it's been fun to hang out with people from different parts of the globe again. Gero is from Germany, as is Sabi (one of the other girls, although her family is originally from Turkey). Brian is American, but was born in Germany and is currently doing his Masters degree there. Laura is a New Yorker, Lucia is Italian, Gaspar is Spanish, Hari is from Sri Lanka and Sonit is from India.

The first week in March was a bit crazy, as I had three Elementary School days instead of the usual one. When the Junior High Schools have mid-term/end-of-term tests, instead of having the ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) sit on their butts and do nothing for two days, the Education Office at the Town Hall assigns us to Elementary Schools. So I went to Elementary School the Monday and Tuesday, as well as the usual day, Thursday. I LOVE going to Elementary School because I get to plan the lessons and be the primary teacher, not just an assistant (interact! engage!), and the kids are usually super enthusiastic and participatory. My voice hasn't been the same since that week though! And although I feel more comfortable planning and following through on ES English lessons now than I did my first year, I still freak out a little before each ES day, worried that the lesson isn't going to be interesting enough or that I won't be able to get across to the students (or their homeroom teacher!) what I want to teach for the 45-minute lesson.

The weekend of March 6-8, I headed out just over the border of the Tokyo-area into Chiba Prefecture, near the Tokyo Disney Park, (and this is going to make the most sense only to those of you in the Munson family) to visit Anah's former host-daughter, Tomoko, and Tomoko's family. Ever since arriving in Japan, I've done an annual pilgrimage with Tomoko's family (they have 3 boys, now ranging from 2nd grade Elementary School to 2nd grade Junior High School) to Disneyland.

Thai and Laksmi at the ticket area.

Inside the park.

Thai in his go-kart; a favorite ride of the boys'. And, there's Laksmi.

Laksmi and Thai in the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House.

Tomoko and the boys patiently waiting for Mandy to get her butt out of the tree house.

Where to go next?!....

Tomoko and Laksmi hanging out in Toon Town.
Waiting our turn for the Toon Town roller coaster...as it zooms along behind Thai.
I love that this is a common sight at Disneyland in Tokyo! :-D How many un-inebriated guys could you get to wear Minnie Mouse ears all day in public in the States?!

This past week I had soft volleyball practice, my weekly Japanese lesson, went to dinner at my favorite Indian restaurant with an old teacher friend (which is a big deal not only because of my rural location, but because my Japanese friends so rarely have free time to do stuff like go to dinner!) and of course today's graduation ceremony and post-graduation teacher dinner party. I also had to buy, package and hand out gifts this week for the 3rd grade students according to the number of points they got this term in English class, before they all vanished. Tomorrow I'll be doing my weekly visit to Poponoki to do my organic shopping, as well as hit up tennis practice again for the first time since January!

For those of you who have been trying to cast spells on me to get me to blog more often, there's a little rundown of why my blogs are few and far between. For some reason, even out in rural Japan, I seem to find myself oddly busy. And since last summer, when I'm not busy, I've wound up sick. So when I find myself not busy or sick, I usually end up sleeping because I'm worn out from being sick or busy. ;-P A normal week of non-school activities usually runs as follows: Sunday- tennis. Monday- salsa. Tuesday- basketball with BOSCHers. Wednesday- no weekly activity, but must prep for Thursday's Elementary School lesson. Thursday- Japanese lesson. Friday- no weekly activity, but prone to surprise engagements. Saturday- no weekly activity, but something always comes up. Even if it doesn't, I have to hit the laundry and household chores hard, since it's usually the only day I have to do stuff around the house when it isn't already cold and dark (my washing machine is outside). And like I said, that's a normal week's schedule. Random stuff gets thrown in here and there that keeps me away from even the regularly scheduled activities on a frequent basis. :-D I'm always forming blog ideas in my head, but the getting them typed just get on the agenda often enough!

Of course this is all supposed to sound incredibly impressive, but is basically a catharsis for me to not feel so guilty about blogging so infrequently (hee hee).