Again

Wow, I haven't written for ages! Oh, and the date on this post is utterly wrong because it has been sitting in 'drafts' for two weeks or so. It is actually the 3rd of August, a Thursday).

The other week, right after I wrote my last post, I had some visitors from the Board of Education. First, the person who has been my supervisor since April (and I have met three or four times) came and told me I will be getting a pay cut. I don't really understand why, since all ALTs are supposed to receive the same after tax salary. The other two ALTs in Nikaho City are from America, and Americans don't pay Japanese tax. New Zealanders do, so I have been receiving more money than them and then paying Japanese tax. My supervisor told me I had been receiving too much and needed to take a pay cut. Whatever. To tell the truth, we are all getting paid much less that we were told we would be getting paid before we came here. Not quite sure how that works.

At the same time I was told that the BOE wants to change the method in which they help me pay my rent. Previously, I have paid 25,000 yen and the BOE has paid 20,000 yen. From now on, they want to give me 20,000 yen, and I will then pay 45,000 yen. Which at first seemed reasonable to me, because it streamlines their accounts without affecting me. Then my supervisor told me that the BOE had stopped paying the 20,000 yen in April. You'd think they would have told me at the time, wouldn't you? Or tell me to change my payment to the full 45,000 yen, or to give me the 20,000 they owe me. And how about my poor landlord who is missing 80,000 yen? But it's alright because they reimbursed me the missing 80,000 yen with last months pay. Oh, wait. That was 80,000 yen before tax. I actually only got about 75,000 yen. And since all the details for paying my landlord are at the BOE, I have to get the money out of my bank account and take it back to them. I mean, come on. That's just ridiculous.

After that, three more people came from the BOE to talk to me. Apparently I have been transferred to the general department, although I'm not quite clear on when this came into effect. My new bosses introduced themselves to me. They seemed reluctant to speak to me; they just kept shoving printed sheets of English at me. This was despite the fact I was replying to them in Japanese. Then they started talking about an intensive Japanese language course that will be held in Akita City during the summer. They asked me if I wanted to go, but I said I will be very busy over summer. Then they told me that they have already enrolled me in the course, and showed me the sheet confirming my enrollment. Also, they have enrolled me in the level one class! "Level one?" said I. "Yes," said one of them, pointing to the description of that class, which was written in both English and Japanese. For those who have never studied Japanese before . . . I mean, come on. We were having the conversation in Japanese! And yet, they didn't seem to understand why I was concerned. They've enrolled me in the course for the ALTs that will arrive later this month. *sigh* When I told them that the course was 'too easy,' that I already have people who help me with my Japanese, and that since the course runs over a weekend I will probably be too busy anyway, they told me to think very carefully about the course, and give them my descision next week and, oh, if I don't want to go then they will have to cancel my enrollment (said as if this is something they really, really don't want to do).

The whole mess could have been avoided if they had spoken to me at least once before enrolling me in the course a) to see if I wanted to / had time to go and b) to check whether I had, in the last two years, actually studied Japanese. I talked to the other ALT's in Nikaho City and they were also annoyed about the Japanese course thing. We ended up cancelling our reservations.

Last week on Monday the summer holidays started. I used paid leave on Monday and Tuesday, indending to go for walks to investigate the new beach that just opened in my town and to take pictures of the scenery. Of course it rained both days and so I stayed home. Last Saturday I attended a party in Honjo. The party was a goodbye party for Amanda, who will be returning to America in a few days time. We had heaps of fun despite the sadness factor.

On Sunday morning Tshepo (the Nikaho and Nishime Sr. High School ALT) and I helped Amanda clean her kitchen, take out trash etc. As a thank you, we got to search through all the stuff Amanda will not be taking home with her and take what we wanted. I got a futon, some halloween stuff (to use at Kamagadai), some toiletries, teabags and books.

The books were things I would not usually read but that look interesting anyway. I got a stack of Marian Keyes books, The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, a book called Sophie's World which has something to do with philosophy, a battered copy of Romeo and Juliet, and an obscure Penguin Classics book, something about some guy's diary of conditions within rural Russia during the 1800's (and yes, I do want to read it). At the moment I am working on Sushi For Beginners and enjoying it far more than I thought I was able to enjoy a mainstream fiction. Maybe it's because I am an adult woman now and can sympathise. Also, since I went to Dublin in January I can picture where the story is taking place. I am very much looking forward to reading The Other Boleyn Girl. Coincidentally, it is the book selection of the month at The Book Bitches, a blog I found recently (by clicking on the little rolling "Blogs updated at . . ." on the blogger.com frontpage).

Atsuko came over to Amanda's place too. She received some stuff, bitched about Toshi (again) for Amanda's and Tshepo's entertainment, and then became driver for Tshepo and I so that Amanda could get ready to go play badminton. We three went to Aeon to get drinks and for Atsuko to get icecream, and then Tshepo said he wanted to go to Uniqlo. While we were there, Atsuko invited Toshi to hang out with us (despite aforementioned bitching). We all eventually ended up in a restaurant in Kisakata eating pseudo-Italian food (although I will admit the lasagne was actually really good). Toshi was a very loud and embarassing dinner companion. The three beers probably had a lot to do with that. I felt sorry for Tshepo because the conversation kept slipping into Japanese and Tshepo still can't speak it.

Tshepo became tired, so we dropped him home and then Atsuko, Toshi and I bought junk food and went back to Atsuko's house to hang out some more. Since Atsuko's house is so damn huge, there was plenty of room for us to stay over. Atsuko dropped Toshi back at his house the next morning so he could go to work. I had Monday off so I was OK. When Atsuko came back, she immediately started bitching about what a weirdo Toshi is. I said, "But you looked like you were having fun last night."

"That's because I'm Japanese. I don't show emotion on my face, but I'm thinking 'I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!'" Yeah right, Atsuko.

On Tuesday I had been planning to go for the walk I had not been able to take the week before, but of course it was raining. Heavily. This year's rainy season just doesn't know how to finish. Everyone keeps telling me how exceedingly strange the weather is. Is there anywhere in the world that is experiencing normal weather?

Yesterday I went to Kamagadai to help out with preparing students for next term's English speech contest. In the evening I taught my English conversation class. I asked them to do an activity from the textbook, but everyone kept coming up with excuses to put off doing the task. Everyone was speaking Japanese so I asked them repeatedly to speak English. Usually they speak for a short while in English then return to Japanese until I remind them again. Yesterday everyone just ignored me. It was hot and so they felt lazy, and they all just ignored me. I felt so frustrated and insignificant. Usually teaching my conversation class is like herding cats. Last night it was like herding air.

All my students decided that for the next two weeks the class will be on holiday so they can go to summer festivals. They didn't ask me. They didn't ask the supervisor of the class, which they really ought to do. They all just decided not to come next week or the week after, and are going to ring around the other students who weren't there last night to make sure that no one comes. Really, feeling very insignificant just now.

I am going to be performing yosakoi several times over the coming weekend. I hope I can find the time to write about it.

With crossed fingers

Today it's sunny. Maybe, just maybe, the rainy season is ending. I hope so, because I've been bad of health over the last week, due mostly to the bad weather I'm sure.

Last Saturday I helped out with a club for small children called the 'Challenge Club.' The challenge in question is English and internationalization. The club meets twice a month, and the small children and their parents study easy English and listen to guest speakers. I was the guest speaker and helped out with teaching English too. I spoke about New Zealand (in Japanese!) showed pictures of New Zealand, and taught the children how to play coin rugby. It was lots of fun, and nice to spend a rainy Saturday morning doing something productive.

On Monday I hung out with Atsuko. First we were going to go to a barbeque at Sumiko's house, but it was raining and the barbeque was cancelled. So we were going to take painting supplies to Sumiko's house and paint pictures, but Sumiko didn't reply to our messages. Atsuko and I ate lunch in Nikaho, went to Daiso to buy canvas, and bought junk food at Max Valu. Eventually Sumiko said that she was busy, so we went back to Atsuko's house.

Atsuko lives in such a big house! It's like a mansion! I couldn't believe it. It was the biggest house I've ever been in that hasn't actually been a country manor converted into a museum or a castle. Atsuko has a whole floor to herself. Although her floor is not as big as the first floor, it is still about three or four times as big as my apartment.

Anyway, we just ate junk food, cooked dinner and hung out. We didn't even get around to painting. That evening I started to feel unwell, and that is how I have been ever since. Damn rainy season. My voice refuses to remain in my throat for extended periods of time. It especially likes to fail me in the middle of doing word pronunciations in English class.

Rainy season

It is utterly the middle of the rainy season now. The rain is coming down reasonably hard, constantly and in large drops so that the drains are overflowing. To make matters worse, it is very foggy. The school windows are open because of the heat, so the inside of the school is essentially the same as the inside of a cloud.

I washed my hair this morning and then tied it up in a plait like usual (which is how I stop my hair from becoming bigger than me). Two hours later my hair was still dripping, so I undid the plait and spent a lot of time trying to fluff air through my hair to dry it out. Yet it refuses to dry. For once I'm not exaggerating. My hair is still as wet as if I washed it an hour ago.

Very few people came to my English class last night, probably due to the weather. It was quite lonely. For a long time there were only three students. Atsuko had forgotten about the class so arrived half way through. One other person had been busy, but joined us for the last 20 minutes or so.

I found an interesting blog to read recently. Probably not everyone can read it, but I can. It's called Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog. It has the side effect of making one spell one's words phonetically. Maybe that's why I had trouble spelling words the other day?

I had a dream last night that I could remember this morning but can't remember now. Both my sisters were in it. It may have been set in England. I think there were scary things. Scary people? Ghosts? I don't know. Whatever they were, they did not scare me much in my dream.

During lunch and cleaning times here, the students are allowed to put on music of their choice. This week, to my disappointment, they have decided to listen to Avril Lavigne. Over and over again. *sigh*

Wow, my life is boring at the moment.

Peacock

On Saturday I went to Akita City with Atsuko and her friend Miwa.

First we went to Akita Aeon Plaza, a huge shopping mall. We took puri kura (those little stickers with your picture on them) and then hung out in Starbucks for a while. I bought some muesli at the foreign foods store and some smarter summer clothes to wear to work, and then we went into Akita City proper to dine at Peacock.

Peacock is an Indian restaurant. All the cooks there are Nepalese. Even though they are not Indian, they are considerably better at making curry than Japanese cooks would be. And there was naan bread! I had 'chicken sag' (all names are shortened so that Japanese people do not have to struggle to say them). The chicken was mostly skin which was dissapointing, but the spinach curry itself was delicious, if a little weak. It was the third time since I moved to Japan that I was able to eat a non-Japanese curry.

After Peacock, we headed back to Honjo. We went to Nishime Herb World and picked lavender. I have bunches of it hanging up to dry in my apartment at the moment. After Herb World we went in search of cake. The place we found was putting on a private function, so we ended up eating at Mr. Donuts. By that stage the sun was going down (I want daylight savings!) and we were tired so Miwa went home and Atsuko and I went back to Konoura.

***

As an aside, the whole time I have been writing this post, I have been unsure of the spelling of words I ought to be able to spell. Words I had trouble with: lavender, dissapointing, even apartment! What's with that?! I swear, I am forgetting English.

Yuzakoi Festival

On Sunday I performed at the Yuzakoi Festival, which was held in a town called Yuza in northern Yamagata Prefecture. I performed with both yosakoi teams, Kafumai and Saihoku Repputai.

At first, we were going to perform Repputai without any help from the Hokkaido people. But while we were in Sapporo last month, many Repputai people from Hokkaido said that they wanted to come to Yuza too. Of course, it is difficult to travel so far on such short notice. Nine people came last week to perform with us, which is still a lot I think. We practiced together on the Saturday, and then had a party in Kisakata. I was finally able to order a Repputai t-shirt and snapshots of our team in Sapporo. I hope they arrive soon.

On Sunday morning, just like last year, it was pouring with rain. We went to Yuza and changed into our Kafumai costumes. Because of the rain, the whole festival was held inside a gym, but the changing rooms were in another building, so all us performers got wet anyway. We performed Kafumai and then those of us who are in Repputai as well had to quickly go change our costumes. We had quite a bit of time, but becaue the Repputai costume for this year is similar to a kimono it takes a while to put on.

After dancing Repputai I had to change my costume again. And dance again. I had a few minutes to quickly eat and then I changed my costume again and performed Repputai one more time. After that was the free dance and the prize giving.

Now, last years winning team had become much better over the last year, so we were sure that they would get first place again. Everyone was quite surprised when that team was awarded second place. I was looking about the hall wondering which of the teams I hadn't seen would be awarded first, when the (superintendent of Yuza?) called "Saihoku Repputai." We won! First place! We got a big trophy and, bizarrely, an MD Player. I don't know what we are going to do with the MD PLayer since the team leader already has one we use. Sell it and share the money around? But Kafumai got a stranger prize. As a 'thank you for participating' we received a box of raw fish. Um yeah, cheers.