Oompa Loompa Doompety Doo...

Been a while since my last blog update. Mostly because we've been pretty busy, but also because I've been pretty lazy.
Why have we been so busy? This week was the first week of work/school/teaching. Why have I been so lazy? Basically for this past week we've been at school from 8am to 5pm every day, then on Wednesday and Thursday nights we had classes at the office...so not getting home until about 9pm on those nights.
So there you go. I'm writing this up now because I'm not out hiking a 419 metre (you know what, fcuk you 'spell checker'...I've had enough of your American English elitism. It's metre, not meter, so don't give me your red underline crap) high mountain over at Ohira - a bit to the East of us. Let me explain. Last Sunday night, Jenni and I got together with five other new teachers (Chris, Lisa, Andrew, Tom and Ana) and went out to dinner at a tiny little Italian restaurant in Ashikaga. It was good and they were cool people so we decided to hang out more in the future. Chris suggested going hiking (is that what we say in Australia? I can't remember) the following Sunday (today). We were cool with that (only a little apprehensive - to put it in context, Castle Hill is about 280 metres) and Sunday/today was supposed to be a nice sunny, warm day (it is btw). But last night I got a shitty cold and my throat swelled up, I didn't get much sleep etc etc - so here I sit, instead of halfway up Mt. Whatever...watching Jenni do the ironing lol.*

So, the first week. How was it? Before I go into the details I'll just give you some background. The Japanese school system works like this:
Elementary (or Primary) School for grades 1 to 6, Junior High School for grades 7 to 9, and High School for grades 10 - 12. From what I've gathered each school is totally separate from the others and each stage of schooling works fairly differently from (as well as generally independently of) each of the others.
I, Wyatt, work as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) at three Japanese Elementary (Primary) schools in the area; Mikuria, which is the largest elementary school in Ashikaga with about 800 students from year 1 to 6 - Mon, Tues, Wed; Kuno, possibly the smallest school in Ashikaga with about 100 students from year 1 to 6 - Thurs; and Tsukuba, somewhere in between with about 200 students from year 1 to 6 - Fri. I help teach grades 4, 5 and 6 English.
Jenni works as an ALT at only Kyouwa Junior High School, which is also a very large school with about 550 students.
Anyway, the first week of lessons is basically an introduction lesson where we tell the kids about ourselves and Australia in very basic English...for 45 minutes...18 times. Eighteen. I did the same thing 18 times this week. It got old after about the 5th time. But really it wasn't all that bad. It's kind of weird being a 'teacher' - I'll try to explain. Generally as an ALT I am supposed to assist the Japanese teacher but this week it was aaallll Wyatt. I had effectively no training and I am not a fan of public speaking...but for some reason I wasn't particularly nervous. I mean, if I compare this situation to say...an English oral in high school...I should have been curled up in a feotal position rocking slightly from side to side. But no. I was a tiny bit nervous before my first couple of classes started but as soon as they got going I was fine. It felt like I had been doing it for ages. That's not to say my first class, or any for that week, was going to win me any...something...awards (is there a major teaching award?). But I was strangely comfortable up there infront of a class. Also, a lot of how the class went really depended on the students I was teaching. I really noticed the differences between each class. Some were really quiet, some were really rowdy, some took a while to warm up to me, some acted like they'd known me for years. I also realised the mood or atmosphere of each class depended largely on the teacher. For example, one of my classes was taught by a very young, very new female teacher. She was very nice and probably a very good teacher, mind. But the class were very quiet and timid...as if unsure of how to act, what to do - I think, somehow reflecting the teacher's lack of confidence and/or inexperience...or something like that. But another class, which had an older much more experience female teacher who was more confident with her English ability and was confident when communicating with me and the class, were way more comfortable asking random questions and trying to chat with me and they showed more interest in what was going on. The classes with lots of lively kids were much better than having a quiet class full of shy kids. In general, the year 5 kids were the best class to teach...for me anyway. Year 4 kids didn't know as much English and so couldn't understand a lot of what I said - which is more my fault...if I was a better teacher I could have tailored the lesson to fit their English ability - while the year 6 kids were just coming into those awkward teenage years and were generally too shy or too cool to speak up or show too much interest in the class.
Speaking of the year 6 kids, I'm sure it's Karma. I definitely remember being a little shit to our Japanese teacher in year 6 at Ryan. Pissing around and not taking any real interest in it. Well, joke's on you now, Jackass - lol.
Looking back over the week, I'm pretty sure I should have done some things differently but in general I'm happy with how it all went.
As far as I can tell all the teachers have been really good to me...very nice and very helpful etc etc. The ALT English program has only recently been introduced to to elementary schools in Japan, so most of the teachers only have very very basic English and they are very shy to use it. They also don't want to look like fools/be shown up by some dickhead straight from Uni with no real training, infront of the kids. And some teachers are busy or just aren't really interested in English at all. Which kind of makes it hard when you're trying to plan a lesson with them. But we'll see how it goes next week.

Oh oh! And that sort of reminds me. At the small school, Kuno, which is considered a 'farmer's school' - as in it's a rural sort of area - one of the teachers has a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 8 (or possibly 9) MR! Holy shit. Strangest thing ever. It's like going to Home Hill or whatever and some guy has a Honda NSX. I guess the guy is about 50 (so by Western standards he looks about 40 lol) and apparently he has quite a few cars and likes to go rallying. Nice. And there is another guy at my big school, Mikuria, with an Evo 5 which has a roll cage...he's young, maybe a few years older than me, and he likes to rally too.
Some other interesting bits of information: Mikuria has a dog-bus. It's a bus, shaped like a dog. Think of the van in Dumb and Dumber and then put it in bus form. I'll get pics soon. I hate those year 1 kids so so much. Lucky bastards.
I'm being stalked by Yakult ladies. Yes, Yakult. Yakult is big in Japan. How big? Well it's almost a religious cult. Instead of getting door-knocked by Jehovah's Witnesses trying to convert you, you get Yakult ladies door-knocking trying to sell you Yakult and make you sign up for yearly plans. Then they come to your school (no shit) and try again there. I admit I was weak the first time they came to our apartment, I caved and bought some. 500Yen for a week's worth of Yakult. To be fair I didn't really know what they were going on about and they couldn't understand me so I felt it was easiest to just give them some money to make them go away. They came back the next week, but this time I was strong and refused. They were quite nice about it.
Speaking of odd things you pour down your throat, we found some crazy tiny Fanta cans at the local supermarket/Big W. They're purple, orange and yellow and about half the size of regular Fanta...there's something strangely Willy Wonkerish about them...can't put my finger on it... Anyway, you are supposed to shake the can before drinking. At first I thought I was going to be the victim of some cruel joke - but as it turns out the fanta has some jelly stuff at the bottom of the can which, when shaken, mixes with the rest of the liquid to create a fairly...unique...experience.
Otherwise, we've just been slowly populating our apartment with bits and pieces we need and we got the TV working. Apart from the occasional news report or anime episode most of the programming seems to be either "Variety show" or "Humiliating game show" or a combination of the two. Last night they had a game show where the contestant had to compete against an actual monkey of some sort. Japan is a truly great country.

Anyway, that's it for now, I'll post pictures soon.

*DISCLAIMER: I did the vacuuming AND helped with cleaning the kitchen and hanging out the clothes.

My Blog Epic - I shall call it Uly...Ueno!

You can click on the pictures to make them bigger!

Well, where to begin? As you've probably already noticed, this is another huge post. Perhaps the biggest I've written and, hopefully, will ever write.
There are a tonne of photos and a couple of videos. There could have been a lot more (we had over 200 to choose from) - check Jenni's facebook for a few more.

This week's adventure location was Ueno and Ueno Park - never heard of it? Well, it's big in Japan. Ueno is one of the biggest train stations in Tokyo and a very busy place in general. Ueno Park, which is right next to the station is just as popular. A lot of stuff is situated in and around Ueno Park; museums, Universities, famous statues, temples, shrines, lakes full of paddle boats...that sort of thing. It also has a lot of history; the usual stuff like famous last stands of loyalists against new claimants, surrender speeches and political demonstrations.
When we went it was even busier than usual; the reason being that Ueno Park is also fairly famous for it's cherry blossoms (sakura) around this time of year.





People from Tokyo and the surrounding districts swarm (see some of the pictures if you think I'm just being a bit 'poetic' with that description) to the park to eat, drink and be merry - there's a very festive feel to it all. We're not sure what the protocol is; if you have to reserve a space or just rock up with your tarpaulin and food. Either way, there are heaps and heaps of people doing just that. They come down in groups...friends, family, whatever...and set up a little spot under the sakura trees for the day. It's like a mass picnic or something. It's very cool though.


Anyway we left the apartment in time to make the 8:43am train from Fukui Station, like last week. You'll be pleased to hear the ticket purchasing process went much more smoothly this time and when we got to Kuki station we didn't even bother trying to make the express 9:31am train. Ueno is closer than Shibuya, so we ended up getting to Ueno at about 10:30am.

However, no sooner had we jumped off the train and headed into Ueno Park than we were horrified to find...

A Peruvian panflute band setting up!


It's true, the pandemic of annoying Peruvian panflute bands has already spread to Japan. (Don't know what I'm talking about? Please watch this South Park episode)

Anyway, moving along, we were both feeling pretty hungry so we decided to head along the side of the park towards the city, where we might find some food. On the way, we came across this statue of Saigo Takamori...walking his dog.

Saigo Takamori is famously known as the Last Samurai. And yes, Ken Wantanabe's character in the movie, The Last Samurai, is based on this guy (not Tom Cruise's character). Anyway, if you wanna know more about him you can google the name. Otherwise the movie gives you the general idea.
Like the rest of the park, there were heaps and heaps of people here - taking photos or just standing around chatting etc. Ditto for when we hit the streets of Ueno. Lots more people. And cars. Here's one. A cool yellow Honda S2000. Segue...succes!


Also saw this, a very nice original looking Toyota AE86 Trueno:

After stopping at a little coffee shop for morning tea we decided to keep looking around Ueno for a while. We ended up spending about an hour wandering around looking at all the different shops and bars/pubs/clubs, and eventually coming to the busy backstreets which continue up to under the train tracks and beyond.


Around this area were all sorts of shops - food, shoes, pets, souvenirs, auto-spares, pachinko (of course) - which became smaller and more market stall-like the deeper into the maze we got. The picture above shows a comparatively clear street and was closer to the main road. Around the worst spots it was basically a traffic jam, there were so many people. Eventually it got to a point where we couldn't push through any further, we just had to turn around and go back.

Heading back towards the park along the main street we saw this: a full suit of medieval plate armor...in a ladies clothes shop.


Ueno in general has a lot of this sort of thing - strange, out-of-place things randomly situated next to, or among, the usual. Like this. A nondescript white building with a huge red neon sign - ADULT MOVIES - literally right at the main intersection of Ueno, just outside the park, next to restaurants, flower shops and the like.


Eventually we got back to the park via a different entrance next to the lake. Again, heaps of people around this area. Many people also brought their dogs down. Most of the dogs were of the very small variety; small poodles, miniature dachshunds etc. Often the dogs weren't being walked, but carried around in little bags or backpacks held or strapped to the owner's body.


Around one section of the lake were about 40 market stalls set up selling stuff which we wandered through. Below is a video of the lake area and a dog. Also a couple of pictures of different types of sakura trees; one with really pink blossoms and another with lots of orange leaves (it looks nice and is actually pretty uncommon).

I mentioned earlier that there were lakes full of paddle boats. Well here they are. The whole area looks like one big lake with a wide pathway through the middle, dividing it. The pathway is covered with sakura trees, which is why you can't see the boats in my previous pictures. We are on the pathway here.


Now, for the picture below. Just have a look at it for a while - note the tightly clenched hands. Now look at the man's face...try to imagine what's going through his mind. Finally, laugh. lol.

Near the end of the path is a small bridge/weir. I was wondering earlier if there were any fish or turtles or dragons in the lake, when we got here I got my answer. I thought this was a good picture of a crane going fishing. The poor bugger wasn't having much luck though...considering the fish (carp perhaps?) were generally atleast twice the size of it. You can't see the fish well in this photo, but have a look at the next one.


Is it just me, or does this duck look decidedly uncomfortable and nervous? I think I would be too.



Once over the bridge there is a huge temple of some sort with a few statues and smaller shrines around it. Also, this was where you came for the food. There were about 25 food stalls lining each side of the path/series of bridges connecting the temple's island to the other side of the park. There was heaps of really nice food and we tried a few things.
Like I mentioned, there are temples and shrines pretty much all over the park. Here's another one. Not sure what it's for exactly, but I think the twin fox statues with the bibs are pretty cool.


We then headed back into the park, onto one of the major 'highways,' or rivers of people. Saw this statue of who we think is General MacArthur. We're not sure though. Whoever it is, it's pretty much saying, "All ur base r belong to us!1!"


We then visited the museum area and went into the main museum of Japan. Spent a good 2 hours in there but still only just a whirlwind tour of the place sort of thing. We weren't really allowed to take photos so we don't have anything from there. There was another main Asian museum and two other 'special' collections that we didn't have time to visit. You could easily spend a day or two just at the museums.
In the end we really only saw about a quarter of what Ueno Park and Ueno had to offer. We got back on the train at Ueno Station at about 8:00pm.

And finally, here are a few pictures taken at night as we wandered back towards the train station.


This is the big temple in the middle of the lake we visited earlier, and you can still see all the people crammed in between the food stalls.


This shot was taken outside the park, near the Shogun cemetery (which was closed by the time we got there). It made me think of the lamp post in Narnia lol. That's the only reason I took this picture.


And just when you thought you were safe...








BAM! More sakura!!

The end.