MeySen Christmas

Christmas is probably one of the busiest times of year here at MeySen. It starts right about the day after Halloween, much to the demise of those NO CHRISTMAS till after THANKSGIVING people.  We start in teaching our kids Christmas carols on a daily basis.

 The first stop in the Christmas extravaganza is Caroling through the Ichibancho. When I told my kids about it, many of the boys groaned saying, "people talk in Japanese saying what is this funny club singing in English." But I think they secretly liked it. I definitely enjoyed spending the last few minutes of class singing Christmas carols for several weeks. The actual event was great though it was shortened due to heavy rain. The Ichibancho is this mile long shopping district that is covered in most places. We gathered our kids at fixed points to sing songs essentially to their parents who followed us around. There were also the random international looking people that you you could see pause and go: "Japanese kids singing in English?" The kids rocked their carols and sounded great.

just one of the tables of desserts

A week later, I went and checked out the kindergarten Christmas party. This is probably one of the biggest deals in the immersion program. All of the kids from both campuses get together to sing, act and play games. It it is like your average American public school party/Christmas pageant on Muscle Milk. During the 4 hour ordeal, The students process in and sing Christmas carols in a Tree formation on stage then go through games and more songs. I swear every little thing that happened on this day was better than watching babies giggling while holding kittens dressed like Santa Claus; the cutest thing you will ever see.  These kids also had talent. Part of the singing was in Japanese and students got to have solos (yes Im still talking about 4 and 5 year olds). The kids with solos had beautiful voices. On top of the singing there was a Nativity play and traditional Japanese dances. I wish I could show the videos I took on here cuz its just something you've got to see. After everything, there was the biggest smorgasboard of desserts known to man laid out and set up in about 2 seconds. All the parents, brought desserts to pass for everyone. The kids ended the day on N'Sync's "Merry Christmas Happy Holidays." It was just plain great.

Unfortunately I didn't get a ton of pictures dressed as santa.

The next day we had Christmas cheer day which was essentially a bunch of games with our campus and a video to get the kids pumped for their version of the kindergarten party. That weekend, 1st and 2nd grade and HS had their Christmas parties. On top of that I taught a normal Saturday for 3rd grade so I worked from 8AM-8PM straight. The first and second grade party was the kindergarten party on a smaller scale. The kids played games for prizes including a Christmas present pinata filled with candy. Also for the party, yours truly got to be the big man in Red.

Apparently in Japan, Santa does not need to be fat. The Santa suit is actually pretty slimming. From my experience, I give those mall Santas a lot of credit. My job was to help pass out presents and sing carols with the kids. I had kids tugging my beard, hanging on my leg, and a baby crying at me.  Outside of that, it was pretty great to feel like the star (my brothers and sister can attest to my need for attention). Several of the kids kept trying to guess who I really was. Most of them kept guessing that I was one of the other teachers. One kid was convinced then I showed him the other teacher and he goes "Santa?"  One girl was only convinced I wasn't the real Santa after she saw my shirt sleeve under the costume. After carols people were constantly asking for pictures with their kids. I think between helping with pony rides last summer and pictures Saturday, I'm going to be in a ton of random Japanese photo albums.

By Saturday night, I was pretty exhausted with the two four hour Christmas parties. The high school party was actually a walk down memory lane for the kids playing games they did as a kid.It was all kind of a blur because I was pretty tired but it went well.

With less than a week left, the Christmas season is still not over, this Thursday we have the 3rd and 4th grade Christmas parties which is the same as the others but without parents. On top of that, we are having a little Christmas party with other teachers Wednesday and a staff party Thursday.

The only downside to all this Christmas celebration is that it just doesn't quite feel like Christmas over here. No matter how many days in a row I blare Christmas music, something's still missing for Christmas here in Japan. The first real snow of the season Friday was a nice touch. Sunday night we went to check the lights out downtown and the was the first time I actually kind felt like Christmas is coming up.

I'll Be Home for Christmas!

**note this was written before I made it home

This year the world was my oyster for my Christmas break. One of the perks of this job is the ability to travel all over during vacations.  I could choose to go anywhere but North Korea for this holiday break. I really started thinking about Australia, one of my top places I want to go. But as I really started to think heavily about what Christmas time means to me, there's really no place Id rather be than home for Christmas.

 I can't imagine not waking up to the living room full of presents, the ensuing wrapping paper fight, "A Christmas Story" playing in the background without ever actually watching it all day,  my mom slipping and falling on the wrapping paper while carrying a tray of cinnamon rolls through the living room.

On top of that, I thought, when will I get many chances to fly across the world to surprise my parents for Christmas. Luckily the stars aligned. MeySen usually still runs on Christmas but it fell on on a Sunday with the emperors birthday on the Friday so I got the chance to fly out the 23rd. On top of that, I got a free roundtrip flight to use as I wanted as long as I signed for a second year. Since September, I've been setting it all in the works to make it home for Christmas and pull off the biggest surprise for my parents.

I had to let my sister in so someone could pick me up from the airport so she's the only one in my family so that knew the entire time. I've also been telling friends as I've been able too. I told my mom that I would be traveling in Japan for the break. Which technically is true, I have to travel to Tokyo to fly home. I've given a lot of vague answers that were not technically lies if she ever had a transcript of the conversation haha. She was under the impression that I would be coming home in March but I only said it was a possibility which is true but not likely.

My plan was to fly home the 23rd and stay at my friend's house then have my sister pick me up from Grand Rapids and meet my mom at church for the Christmas mass. From there, I would have my sister send her on a hunt to come find me.

UPDATE: Everything worked out perfectly as I'd planned. My biggest fear was that she would have known somehow before I came home. Here is the video of the surprise. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

There truly is no place like home for the holidays.

Its official, I've been Outsourced for a Second Year

As I signed the contract today, I started thinking about what I could post. I could go into detail about all the thought and worrying that went into my decision to stay but that just wouldn't be true. To be completely honest, I really didn't give it much thought. Now some people could say wow this is a huge decision and everything but to me it was simple. Actually, I  had to answer two simple questions that everyone should about there job:

Do I enjoy what I do and the people I'm surrounded with?

Do I make enough money that I don't have to worry about money?

Of course, there are more questions you could ask here but for me it really was that simple. Of course, it will be hard to be away from home for another year and I will still miss my family and friends but I am lucky to have found a job that I truly enjoy going to work everyday for.

To be honest, I never really gave much thought into my original choice to come here either. I just came because I happened to go to a teacher fair that just happened to be on a day I could take off from my long term position where I happened to meet a very friendly recruiter who happened to give me a flyer. (still following?) Then in June, I just decided to fill out the application just for the heck of it. Boom got the job and went for it. Didn't really know what I was doing at all. I just went for it because it sounded like a fun thing to do. Most of my friends thought I was crazy.

Looking back I haven't been disappointed. I probably went through one of the craziest experiences most people will never have in their lives with the 9.0 Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear meltdown within my first two months here. Coming home then was the only time I can say that I had any doubts on being here. When I came back, I actually was thinking well Im just going to finish out my contract and come back home ASAP. To my amazement, things went back to normal within a month of getting here. Huge earthquakes slowly dissipated and the crazy experience became a memory.

On a daily basis, I get so caught up in the routine of life that its really hard to believe that I've been here this long already. I can see myself slowly losing track of time. I just assume everything stops in America while I'm gone and will pick up where I left off when I get back. Obviously, that won't happen but I'm cool with it.

A few highlights of my highlights of I can't believe I'm getting paid to teach here in Japan:

• Friends Day, I was paid to walk around with a pony giving Japanese toddlers rides.

• I went camping and river hiking with high school students and got to climb a waterfall and jump off a cliff.
• I got to set up and light off some of the best fireworks I've ever seen for 1st and 2nd grade camp. 
• For Halloween, I got to dress up like spiderman and play games with my students 

• Last weekend, I went caroling down the Ichibancho (A mile of road just for shopping) with my 3rd grade students. We sang Christmas songs to people that probably didn't even understand the words we were singing. 

I still get a lot of those random moments that just crack me up. Like today, I was teaching basketball to the 3rd graders. One of the boys insisted on not going on offense because he wanted to guard the other basket like in soccer.

I've also met a lot of great friends and have done a lot of crazy and fun things with them. 

All in all, I honestly can't complain. I feel truly blessed to stumble upon this job and can't imagine how my life would have been without this experience. I can only hope that next year is even more amazing!

PS HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Random encounter

Everyone once in awhile God gives us these random encounters that keeps us in awe. Today was one such day. A group of us were walking toward the Takamori campus which is essentially in a neighbor area. Usually, on these walks we will encounter the random MeySen Family that will acknowledge us or the random person that will try to run to the other side of the road to avoid getting mugged by Gaijin (foreigners). Then there are days like today...

A 50 year old Japanese (*surprise) man walks up and says "how are you" in broken English. Generally, we thought eh that's kind of odd but we will keep walking. He then goes on to say that hes not fine. He's bipolar and going through a really tough time. Now were all like whoa and I'm even half feeling uncomfortable at his nonchalant ability to give deep details of his life to random people. At the same time, when someone is feeling down you want to try to help them the best you can even if it is to just listen.

He goes on to talk all about his life in somewhat understandable English. He spent time in America studying at Tennessee and made some random references about them winning a national champion in the 70s and other random tidbits about being picked on as a kid and what not. It was all kind of blurred together. He also talked about how he was having a really rough time lately because his parents were killed in the Tsunami and he had no real family. He also had a difficult decision because he has citizenship in the US and could move back there or stay. (I swear this is all within 5 minutes of saying hello to this guy.) He then goes on to say how he was a Christian and talked about a church he goes to and how the pastor there is helping him deal with his depression.

We finally got to a point where we were going to be late for our meeting but didn't want to leave a person who was extremely depressed alone. (Hopefully not that this was an issue but Japan is known to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world). Brian, one of our teachers, offered to pray for him. I don't like to act hokey about things but I could feel Gods presence through my whole body in that moment.  As we all prayed, the man started weeping. You could see a deep change in his demeanor as soon as we finished, almost like a ton of bricks flew off his shoulders.

I don't know what will happen to that guy or if I will ever see him again but in that moment I know that God made a difference in that mans life through us. Its amazing how powerful a random encounter can be. 

Thanksgiving

With the passing of Thanksgiving in America, its reminded me of a lot of things I am thankful for over this past year. Its crazy when I look back at last year during Thanksgiving and where I am this year for Thanksgiving. This year was my first year in my 26 years of existence that I didn't spend Thanksgiving at my house with all my family. Because I was away, I had the bright idea to wake up at 5AM to skype with my family for dinner. I was also hoping to catch a Lions win but that their loss was at least one thing that kept with the tradition.

Seeing all the food made me want to jump through the screen and steal a plate. Unfortunately, Emeril has yet to invent "smellovision." I kind of felt like a quadriplegic because someone had to constantly aim me in the direction of something going on (Thanks Karly). But outside of eating the actual food it kind of felt like normal thanksgiving. Everyone huddled around food, me being the youngest child trying to do anything for attention. The only major difference was that I was 6,000 miles away huddled in my freezing apartment wrapped in my fleece blanket and heading to teach Japanese children a few hours later. Though watching my family eat was a bittersweet experience I am definitely thankful for the decision I've made to come here and continue to do what I'm doing. Even though, I can't be with my family, it feels like I am with a family everyday I come to work (cue collective "awwww").

Also, we were blessed with a great Thanksgiving meal Saturday put on by Samaritans Purse. This organization has been working with MeySen and GrapeCity since the major earthquake and tsunami to help the effected regions by us. Heading in there, I felt almost like a random Japanese person gawking at all these foreign looking people. Its very rare to see someone who doesn't look Japanese and doesn't work at MeySen in Sendai. The group seemed like a very giving and friendly bunch and seemed to fit right in with a lot of the staff here.

Delicious Turkey

Our Gospel singing entertainment for the night

People starting to line up for the food

The food was awesome! Since moving here, I've gotten more used to Japanese food but develop a longing for American meat and potatoes coooking. There was plenty of it. Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, stuffing, rolls, a billion different desserts.  All kinds of things Id take for granted living in the US. I think my eyes were bigger than my stomach though because I tried to eat 2 platefuls and felt full for the rest of the night.

Its events like this I feel so thankful for the school that I work at and the experiences I'm having feeling at my home a world away from home.


PS: GO BLUE! About time they beat that school from Ohio

Boyz 2 Men Concert in Sendai

As a kid growing up I remember blaring "Motown Philly" everywhere I went. Granted I was 6 years old when it came out but I've always had a love for R&B. If I had to pick the top R&B group of my generation it would hands down be Boyz II Men. They just got that soul that's missing in a lot of today's music. (Crap I'm already saying back in my day, I'm getting old haha). A few months ago, I randomly bought a Boyz 2 Men CD I found on the clearance rack at a second hand store. Since then, I've been blaring there music from my classroom and driving around Sendai.

As luck would have it, my friend and I found out that they were going to be playing in Sendai. In all honesty, I would have listened to the Wiggles live just to hear a group that speaks English perform in Japan. Luckily for me it was a group that I've always appreciated. The tickets were 8500 Yen ($110) but Japanese money is like Monopoly money to me so I figured what the heck, I'm in. Now in the US, if I paid over $100 for a concert I'd expect to have seats on the stage and an all access pass. In Japan, thats a pretty average price for a main stream concert from what I hear. Basically, I just had to answer the question: When will I ever see Boyz II Men in concert in Japan again? 

Tonight, they did not disappoint. I was almost as interested in going to see culturally how Japanese people interact at this concert as I was to see them perform. Most of the people were probably mid 30s-40s from the looks and many looked like they came from work to watch the concert. From the opening number on, everyone was having a good time. I kind of got lost in the moment and felt like I was back in America listening to them sing. 

Going into the concert, I wasn't sure how they'd sound. I've heard bands in the past as they get older losing a little something. We even joked before about them going from Boyz II Men to Men II Depends. From the opening number, their vocals were on point. You'd hardly notice they were missing a member of the group. 

Some of my favorite highlights were their Motown renditions that would rival the original artists and their cover of Journey's "Open Arms". All their hits were awesome. Every time bands that have been around for a while start saying "Hey this is off our new album" is usually my cue to use the bathroom. But honestly, even the new stuff sounded pretty great. 

The only low of their set was toward the end when they had a dig at America that kind of sounded like Sour Grapes. They thanked Japan for still having love for them even though back home people in America don't  "appreciate" them anymore. Though its probably true that they don't get Bieber hype,  there's no need to talk down to your American fan base that may actually be in the audience. Also, it was kind of funny seeing the language barrier as they talked with the audience. Obviously, I was probably about 1 of 10 fluent English speakers in the audience but they sang and talked in only English. They almost sounded like they were talking to kindergarteners at times until they brought out a translator at the end. 

All in all the Boyz still got it. It was definitely a great decision for my Wednesday night. Definitely one of those situations that I think: how did my life come to this point that I'd be sitting  here listening to Boyz II Men in the middle of Japan.

Halloween in Japan/Field Trip

People may wonder what they do for Halloween in Japan. Well Japanese stores love to celebrate pretty much everything possible in hopes of selling things. But outside of the hallmark idea of Halloween, they don't do much. Actually, there are a lot of random teenagers and twenty somethings that regularly dress up as Pikachu or something random. On a given weekend, you will see some caricature randomly walking around downtown Sendai and taking pictures with kids.

Archery Game Station

Fishing Station

Japanized Spiderman

crazy creature we found at our field trip last week

A view from the pond at the museum

Our school tries to give a more American style celebration with Jamboree! Basically, all the kids come to school on a Saturday night and play a ton of games and dress up in costumes. I got to relive my childhood I dreams and be black Spiderman. I started the night hanging out by the street in full costume. I'd love to know what the random Japanese people were thinking as they drove by. From there, we got together with our students. I told my kids I was going to be batman so they were a little surprised when Spiderman started talking to them. Kids from other classes still call me Spiderman when I see them. There a bunch of random funny stories that night but I waited too long to make this post and forgot the good parts. I did embarass one of my students when they called all the Cowboys and Indian costumes to take pictures together. He was dress as a person from India and technically the only Indian but was sent back to his seat.

Here is a great picture of my class at Jamboree. You may have to scroll until you see spiderman:http://www.meysen.ac.jp/immersion/photo/2011/1022imfc/PTflash.htm
Also here is  a great video of what it was like, a few of my students make a cameo:http://www.meysen.ac.jp/immersion/video/
If you're bored you can check out the camp day 1 video. It was a blast and you might get to hear my beautiful singing voice.

How to Get by in Japanese

So you find out you're getting a job in Japan but the only Japanese you know is based on a song by Styx (if you don't get that joke ask your parents). Well I'm here to help. I got bored doing Japanese shukudai (that ones a bonus) so I decided to make a list of the only 10 words you really need to know to get by in Japan. I probably knew less when I first got here but honestly this is all you need to survive for a while.

10. Sumimasen-it means excuse me. Even if you are a scary American, people will not move out of your way especially in the meat department late at night at the grocery store until you say this.
9. Gominasai - I'm sorry. This is what you say when you forgot to say sumimasen and you butted that surprisingly agile 80 year old  shufu (look it up) from the produce aisle.
8. Arrigato- Thank you. (See: Styx reference).
7. Betsu betsu de-used in a restaurant when you're hanging out with your friend you met at a sumo meeting or that friend that happens to not have change. It means to split the bill.
6. Kudasai and onegaishimasu- both mean please and you use each for different things and I'll never really understand which one to you use where. The Japanese language is very polite so you should feel free to throw those pretty much anywhere in a conversation. To be honest you dont really need #6 but people will assume you're just a rude foreigner.
5. Gozaimasu- basically means sir and mam. Used in general greetings and everywhere you can possibly try. Its another one of those polite things you can actually go without but people will secretly hate you jk.
4. Ohayoo Gozaimasu- Good Morning. Only effective in the morning. I've tried in the evening before and it doesn't work.
3. Konbanwa- Good evening. Again this one shockingly only works at night.
2. Konichewa- Hello. When in doubt about the time because the sun rises at 4AM and sets at 5PM use this one.
1. Wakarimasen- This is really all you need to know. This is your free pass to claim ignorance of anything Japanese. As soon as you say it, most conversations are done. It means I don't understand. I say this puppy in my sleep.

And there you have it, the ten(ish) words that you need to survive Japan. Gonbatte!

*side note Eigo ga hanasemasuka? is also important if you're looking to impress people. It means Can you speak English? Though, in all honesty if you say in ENGLISH Can you speak English? and you get blank stares then you're pretty much set with your answer anyway. Also this was supposed to be a top 10 list but 3 more words are probably just as important but who wants a top 13 list so here: Dozo-go ahead. Hai-yes. iie-no.

MeySen Kindergarten We Like You:My kindergarten field trip

This post title is actually the name of a story in our curriculum. However, I've gotten more of a chance to hang out with our immersion kindergarteners over the past few weeks and I'm just blown away by them.As some of you know, I always enjoyed working with kindergarten as a sub. It always starts with crazy stares and kids whispering "we have a boy teacher" within minutes we somehow become friends and the kids want me back the next time. Its partially because I always grew up with that age group because my mom does daycare. For the past week or so I have been sitting in on the 4 year old Japanese class (kind of like how American schools go to a special) to get a better perspective on Japanese class.  In Japanese class, those kids are way better at Japanese than me. They've had 4 more years of practice than I have. It was pretty funny to see the stares I got. Every time I'd attempt to say something about twelve 4 year olds would look back at me and kind of laugh.

 On top of  Japanese class, I was also lucky enough to go to the Aquarium with the 5 year olds last week. I basically acted as a parent volunteer for the kids in one class. I noticed right away how proficient they are in the English language. These kids have barely had 2 years of English exposure and are completely coherent of everything in English around them. I know with my 3rd graders I can hold a pretty normal conversation about anything and even use big words around them and they soak it right in. Its really amazing to see the difference between them and even the high schoolers who did not have the advantage of 6 days a week of English instruction. Also, as a Japanese student myself I can really start to see how polar opposite the two languages are. 90% of the time I try to say something in Japanese I end up saying it wrong so I just make up my own Japenglish (Daijo Not Bu or Suyoumasen). Back on to the point of the story. Those kindergartners are amazing at their abilities. The first random conversation I had was a kid trying to tell me how he loves "High School Musical." Other kids thought it was funny to call me "Miss Greg" because they understand the difference and others just assume Miss is just a formal way to say any teacher name because they've had little experience with male teachers.

We went to Matsushima to ride the ferry boat and feed seagulls then went into the aquarium. I wasn't too excited about feeding seagulls being from Michigan but the kids loved it. They'd come flying up and swoop the snack right out of your hand...the seagulls that is, usually. At the aquarium, we saw a pretty great seal show and then checked out all the fish. All in all it was a pretty great day.

Tsunami Aftermath: 7 months Later

Empty lots where houses once were

broken houses and trash

random boat on the side of the road

Its hard to tell from the picture but that mountain in the distance is just compacted garbage from the Tsunami. There are several of them around town but hard to get to.

This is in the middle of the road

The house in the distance looks rebuilt the other houses didnt fare so well

Random trash litters the beach.

foam 

Thats a boat buried

This is right next to a cliff. a car from a freighter is burried.

Play catch  on the beach midst the trash 

My last post was really about the fun we had just hanging out but you can't really go to the coast without thinking about the tsunami. News all over the world showed the chaos that ensued days and weeks after. I live about 30 minutes from where the tsunami was and know people who were affected by it. I telling my students today about going to Shichigahama for the weekend and they all said the same thing "tsunami." One of my students has a house on the water right there. She told me that the "tsunami came and house was gone."  Its still crazy to think how close it all was. Driving into town you could see the destruction all over the place and a whole lot of empty spaces. I would have taken more pictures but I was the lucky short straw who got to drive us.  Most of my pictures are in the middle of the land where houses once were and now look like a pond is there. These are some of the pictures of areas that were covered by water 7 months ago. I wish I had before and after photos but teachers tell me it was much different.