Satoya Ryokan Tome

So the day finally came! All my afternoons (and early evenings sometimes) spent at school working with my 4 speech students finally came to a close as the day of the English Speech Competition finally arrived.<br><br>The speech contest is held for all the middle schools throughout the city. For this years speech contest there were 4 students from Yoneyama, my school. The contest is actually two contests. One section is a "recitation," where the students pick a pre ...

Its been a while!<br><br>I decided to take this opportunity to do a little bit of a cultural update! Every day I'm pretty immersed in Japanese life, and every day notice another interesting little thing that I realize is much different than how things are in America. I also figure this would be a nice change of pace for all of you to get not only the low-down on what I'm doing in Japan, but also the big and small cultural and day to day differences of Japan. I'll ...

So it finally arrived, the day that had received two weeks of practice, the sports festival!<br><br>Before I begin, let me just say (even though you will understand soon enough) that this sports day absolutely fascinated me, because as far as I'm aware, American middle schools don't have anything of the sort. Much of this was put on, organized and held up by the students, and it was a very big, official, to do. I'll talk at greater length about the differences between American schools and ...

You read that right, orientation, AGAIN! But this time its a bit less boring and class-like than the first two, with only 2 workshops over the course of two days, and mostly a bit of touring about in Tome, allowing a more intimate orientation with my actual town.<br><br>This orientation was done with the other 8 ALTs and our supervisor. Two of the ALTs are pretty hard-core veterans, one making this year his 4th, and the other having come here on and off teaching for about 7 years now, now ...

Been a long time! Yes, I am alive, but unfortunately I don't remember all the details I wanted to share (or necessarily the correct order) for these past 3 weeks or so, but I'll do the best I can. And here we go...<br><br>After orientation it was back to the apartment and regular summer-working for the next few weeks. Some highlights were...<br><br>First, (sometime, I can't remember when...) I got to meet up with Kevin, an ALT from way back when (10 years back!) In my town ...

... of things) gave it an even more "important" air. <br><br>Afterwards, I thought my heart attack was over, and right when I was calming down as we were being moved into another room with our supervisor to settle the paperwork, we are suddenly stopped...<br><br>Then told to go give a self introduction...<br><br>In Japanese....<br><br>Infront of the whole working office.<br><br>Freaking sweet.<br><br>Now, I hadn't prepared anything yet (I was planning on doing that ...

... 8220;Hana&#8221;.<br><br>I didn&#8217;t cry as much as I thought I would during &#8220;Waterfall&#8221;, the last song. However, I had this strange feeling in my chest. It was like my heart was going to burst out but not because it was pounding hard. I still don&#8217;t quite get it, but I think it was a good feeling. That song definitely moves me whenever I hear it.<br><br>Right after the concert, Monica had to rush to catch her train. I lost ...

... On my way back, I came across a singer/keyboardist named You-ki Kitamura performing on Ichibancho. She was really good, and I figured that my mother would like her music so I bought her CD. The people around me were all businessmen. ^^;; When I told her my name, one of the businessmen said, "Oh a foreigner." She seemed a bit surprised.<br><br>Glossary<br>takyubin - delivery service<br>omiyage - gifts<br>

Yesterday was the last day of work. After handing out everyone&#8217;s presents, I talked with kouchou-sensei. Then when it was time to go home, the teachers gave me a send-off. They tried to form an arch for me to go under as I exited the building, but since there were maybe 6 teachers, that didn't work so well. ^^;;<br><br>In the evening, I went to the farewell party for the Southlake visitors. I discovered that either I&#8217;m too accustomed to ...

... last time we&#8217;d be hanging out as a group so we made it count. I will miss life here so much. T_T (I've been using this emoticon too much, methinks.)<br><br>Glossary<br>Comiket - "Comic Market",a gathering for amateur artists to sell their work<br>Natsu Matsuri - Summer Festival<br>hanabi - fireworks<br>meishi - business cards<br>abunai - dangerous<br>yukata - informal summer kimono, made of cotton<br>combini - convenience store