Leg 2

I was exhausted yesterday so would have slept well even if the bed had been a brick, but it was lovely and comfortable and I slept happily until shortly before 8am. My roommate Liz had no plans for the day but I was meeting Alyse downstairs at 9 so eventually got up, showered, packed and went to check out. Fortunately the hotel was happy to hold my bags for the day.

After a happy Hello! Alyse, Pete and I shot out to Newmarket to go to the bakery for breakfast. We caught up and discussed the little I know of my new placement in a Japan. Then, after an enormous plate of BLAT and fries (I know! But it was on the breakfast menu and looked yummy!), we set out to explore a bit of Wellington...stopping in at Pak n Save to by an armful of lollies and then at the post office for me to send them to myself in Japan and so solve my insufficient Omiyage problem. I just about died when I heard how much it costs to post 2.5kg to Japan...it quadrupled the cost of the lollies!!

We then headed into town to check out the Weelington Chocolate Factory. Down a nondescript but open alleyway you don't expect it to be busy, but we had the misfortune to arrive at the same time as a tour group so the place was packed. The factory serves a range if specialty chocolates with prices to match, but I tried a small bar (dark chocolate filled with peanut butter and raspberry) which was nice enough, and a chili, lime, peanut and ginger hot chcolate which was AMAZING! I would have bought some to take with me but they didn't appear to have any for sale. Alyse had the salted caramel hot chcolate which was also delicious. Highly recommend!

Next we continued our exploration of Wellington, driving up some of the topographical high points and roads that even Alyse had never been up before. We also discovered a few more of the Wellington tunnels but poor Pete didn't get any response to his "toot--toot-toot-toot--".

All to soon it was time to head back. An enormous hug later I wished Pete and Alyse all the best and we said goodbye. They kindly dropped me at Prefab where I meet Josie, Kyla and Natalie for lunch. After such a big late breakfast I wasn't sure I would be hungry but I found myself ordering lunch just the same. We all had a bit of a catch up and a chat about life, Japan and work. Everyone's struggling with bureaucracy in their workplaces...well, everyone except me--for now...From what I hear there are sure to be some frustrating bureaucratic hurdles ahead for me to.

After lunch we felt like something sweet and I was after something chocolatey (it's my last chance to eat good chcolate for a long time...) so we headed to the Chocolate Cafe for my second hot chocolate of the day, plus a caramel and macadamia slice. (I go on a diet from the minute I get to Tokyo I swear!).

Back at the hotel it was a long goodbye with plenty of good wishes and encouragement. Natalie gave me a wee Japanese fan (Disney themed!) and Josie especially seemed to find the scenario a bit surreal. She's the reason I'm here after all, but I don't think she ever expected me to follow in her JET footsteps!

I retrieved my bags and met the rest of the group not being dropped at the airport by their family. While rummaging in my backpack I found a postcard I'd forgotten to post. Josie and Kyla kindly offered to do it for me, and everyone was most impressed when Josie produced stamps from her handbag. I look forward to the day when teaching will have me in the habit of that prepared!

Finally it was time to get on the bus, so riding a terrific sugar rush I gave my three friends one last hug and hopped on the bus (there may have been a bit of a miscommunication as the bus company had sent a full sized coach for just the 8 of us). I waved at Kyla, Natalie and Josie as we passed them on the pavement and then sat back in my seat to reflect...the adventure was beginning again!

On the bus we all chatted and I learnt a few more of my fellow JET's names. Melissa showed us the video of us doing Tenei Matou. We were awesome! What a group effort! But I guess that's all part if being a JET--when the occasion calls for it you step up!

At the airport I was stoked to find my checked luggage was exactly 23kg and carry on bag 6.9kg (excluding laptop sleeve...). After doing a lap of the airport I met up with Natasha. Most of the others were having understandably prolonged farewells with family so we decided to go on ahead through security to wait at the gate, back tracking only to say a last goodbye and huge thank you to Melissa-san (JET coordinator) and Fujimoto-san (embassy representative).

A bunch of chatted while waiting to board, discussing our different placements and the mutual problem of finding a three-pin-friendly adaptor for Japan. Fortunately all of my things have only two pins and can handle the 100V/50hz Japanese power supply...even my laptop as it has a US plug!

Soon enough we all bundled onto the plane, most of us excited and some understandably subdued and upset about leaving their families. I was quietly grateful I got my goodbyes done yesterday. It's all starting to become a bit more real!

I was seated next to April and Issacc on the plane and the three of us made a fairly successful team at the onboard trivia. Thus, before we knew it the flight was over, although for a minute we thought we might have landed back in Wellington as it was as turbulent when we landed as when we had taken off!

At the airport we were met by JET representatives who, after we had collected our bags, showed us to the bus and our hotel for the night. It was easy to guess who the JET's luggage was on the carousel: all the ones with bright orange "heavy! 23kg" stickers!

The Hotel Grande is being renovated so we all steamed in through a side door past the restaurant and then were led on a shortcut through the gym and the pool area before filing off to our designated rooms. 37 people hauling 23kg suitcases through a self-closing gate and a self-closing door, so I stopped to hold the door for everyone and someone else the gate.

I'm rooming with April this time around and she is catching up with family so I set out on my own I search of some dinner (yes, in spite of my enormous breakfast and lunch). I thought I'd meet other people along the way but it was windy and starting to rain...and despite google maps saying there was a kebab shop open nearby I got there to find it closed. The weather was really packing it in with lightening and thunder to boot, so I ducked across the road to a hotel bar and restaurant to order something. It turns out they can do take-away so I ordered sweet and sour chicken and thought I'd take it back to the room to watch a movie. Unfortunately "that won't be long" turned out to be almost an hour long wait. A stiff "thank you" was all I could muster when the food was finally produced, before I stalked out and back down the road to the Grande, in the side door, through the shortcut (only briefly taking one wrong turn) and into the room. April was still out so I threw on my jammies, fired up the laptop and sat down to eat and watch a Poirot. One last relax before the madness begins...at 5:30am tomorrow!

So it begins!

It's official. The adventure has started.

It's been a busy few days, packing and repacking with a few less things to get under the 23 + 7kg weight limit...needless to say I've failed. While both bags are under the prescribed weight limit they better not weigh my laptop satchel as it's crammed full of my laptop, paperwork, tablet, harddrive, kindle and iPod and it weighs almost more than the carry on bag! (And yes, over the years I've spoilt myself in the tech department, but having done so I don't want to leave it all behind and not justify the expense!) unfortunately all the tech stuff has lithium ion batteries so I couldn't pack it in my checked luggage even if I wanted to.

The good news is, me and all my stuff has made it to Wellington (ok not including the two boxes + map tube of winter gear, hiking/camping gear, NZ nick-knacks and school resources I'm shipping over...).

I managed to pack everything up AND clear out my room last night so all I had to do was get up this morning and say a very emotional goodbye to the animals before heading to the airport. I had it together until I went to cuddle my cat one last time and completely lost it. It gave Mum a bit of a fright I think.

Then at the airport it was Mum's turn...sort of. We were both a bit British about it (stiff upper lip you know) and after one last hug I shot off down the stairs to the gate before we both lost it in the terminal.

The flight was good and moderately uneventful. I chatted to the woman next to me--an HR manager from Hamilton--and sat in my seat with my eyes closed for long periods of time, singing Tenei Matou in my head and visualising the actions. I'm still getting them muddled with the old ones on occasion and want to have it right before stepping up in front of everyone at our first and last group practice this afternoon.

After a bumpy ride into Wellington from the north we disembarked and after collecting my bag I trundled out to the nearest taxi. It was just on 11 and practice was due to start at 12.

I chatted to the taxi driver on the way into town. He was from Ethiopia but didn't seem inclined to elaborate so I switched topics back to Wellington City. $33.60 later I was dropped outside the Mercure Abel Tasman Hotel. Unfortunately the room wasn't ready so I left my luggage behind the desk and used the restaurant bathroom to change into my suit. Two blocks down the road I realised I had a problem, my new shoes that had seemed so comfortable in the shop, were rubbing the tops if my toes raw. I had ten minutes so I nipped past the Embassy to the supermarket to buy lunch and a packet of socks, then headed back to the Majestic Center.

Almost everyone else was already there so I quickly donned socks and we got started. I made the mistake of approaching song and actions together first but this was quickly rectified and we went from sounding atrocious to sounding pretty darn good in record time.  Most people had obviously put some effort in and it was great to see them taking so much pride in what they were doing, if shyly and nervously! I was especially impressed when, as we brought in the actions, everyone's claps all happened at the same time; I remember it took us weeks to get that right back in school Kapahaka!

Everyone gradually got into it over the course of the afternoon and we were all helped tremendously by the fact that Jasper had learned Tenei Matou on the guitar. With his backing I even managed a reasonable job of calling the song and by 5pm, after four practices sessions squeezed in between the orientation talks we'd not only managed to work in the actions, but were looking and sounding pretty darn good! It was starting to get a bit knackered toward the end, not to mention losing my voice, so was relieved when it came time to jump on the shuttle buses to the Ambassador's house for dinner.

Dinner was a delicious Japanese/western/middle eastern affair, preceded by formal speeches and followed by mine and Jordan's short speeches and finally everyone singing Tenei Matou. Unfortunately being out the front means I couldn't see how everyone did, but they sounded great and from people's comments afterwards it sounds like we did a great job. People were especially impressed we managed to pull off an action song. Considering we only brought but all together this afternoon I'm stoked! I hope my old Kapahaka teacher Tim would have been proud.

Formalities and performances over we were able to mingle some more and enjoy desert. Myself and three of the others had a chat to Minister Nakai, the Ambassador's representative. He told us all about famous dishes from different parts of Japan (apparently my prefecture is famed for its saki). Before heading off to talk to others Minister Nakai gave us each a business card. This is a very formal thing in Japan and as giving and reviewing business's cards ("meishi") requires a certain method and etiquette, the four if all were a bit careful about taking the card with both hands and studying it whilst saying thank you. I noticed mine had an extra phone number scrawled on the back and discreetly checked with Melissa that it wasn't a number the Minister might have wanted to keep. Apparently it wasn't so I got to keep my first Meishi.

Not long after desert was over it was time to go so after each collecting our things from the coat check we caught the shuttle back to town. I made a B-line for the hotel and shortly showered, made tea and crashed into bed, whilst also chatting to my roommate Liz. She's been posted not too far away from me and us keen to do some hiking whilst in Japan, so I look forward to planning a trip sometime.

So, time for bed. I'm so pleased Tenei Matou worked out do well. I'm also excited by the fact that there's to be no more formal proceedings until Minday morning in a Tokyo--our first day in Japan!

Packing...

After having had parcel upon parcel arriving containing posters, pamphlets, chocolates, an inflatable kiwi and various NZ-themed paraphenalia it is now time to pack it all up! I mentioned in my last post that I managed to get my overboard amount of omiyage to fit in my suitcase. This was neither as easy or quick as it sounded in that sentence, but was a lot easier than deciding what exactly to pack for myself.

While internet shopping for resources has been fun, finding summer clothes to take to the 30 degree Japanese summer heat required real leg work. I don't have a summer wardrobe, I never really have, except briefly when I lived in Perth and I ditched most of those clothes when I moved home. Finding summer clothing in Dunedin in winter is a big ask, especially clothing that fits me and falls within the limitations required but Japan-appropriate office/school attire (must have sleeves and have no chance of showing cleavage, bra straps or lower back when you move about or bend over). I have absolutely no problem with this style of clothing, but it's proved quite difficult to find...particularly since I did  not want to spend a lot of money.

Fortunately, there is an answer: op-shopping! I like opshops. Sure there are a lot of aweful things in them, but there's also some gems and these aren't limited by the fashion of the day so you can usually find at least something in a colour you like that suits you. After spending a few days touring the various secondhand clothing stores around Dunedin (as well stores having sales) I emerged moderately triumphant. There must be a well dressed woman out there somewhere who is my size and who ditches a fair amount of nearly new and colourful yet office-worthy clothing at Presbyterian Support. For less than $30 I was able to furnish myself with five blouses, only two of which required minor alterations to fit me properly. Unfortunately a couple of the blouses need to have a singlet or something worn underneath to raise the neckline. Light summer ones of these I could only find in first-hand shops and so reluctantly paid as much for one of these as I paid for all five blouses. But they'll work, so I'm happy.

Between two more stores I was able to pick up two suit blazers for $26 for the pair to replace the one expensive blazer I've ever owned that unfortunately got savaged by my friend's kitten while I was in Wellington. On the upside these new ones are just as good quality (seriously, who ditches this stuff?) and don't have silver clasps like my old one, meaning they can go with both silver and gold jewellery...not that I'm planning on taking any, but I like to be versatile. I have had some trouble with dress pants, but I've got a couple that should work for now. Part of the problem is I lost over 10kgs on TA and my old pair of suit pants no longer fit (inconvenient but yay!).

Between the opshops, the warehouse and a few of the George Street clothing stores I managed to score enough summery clothing to cover school and spare time. In addition to this I'm taking one set of "active gear" (polo shirt and yoga pants) and one set of hiking gear (light, quick-dry gear)...or hope to be. The gear I wore on TA is worn out and far too baggy so I'm heading to Kathmandu armed with a voucher tomorrow to try my luck. I'm also intending to wear a pair of jeans; I know this will be hot, but I live in jeans no matter the weather as I find it very difficult to find other casual trousers I like (and I don't do shorts, except round the house).

So clothes are sorted. Next problem (and probably a more pressing one) was shoes. They don't sell size 10s in Japan so any shoes I want I'll have to take with me or get posted over. In addition to this, in Japan and at my schools you cannot wear your outdoor shoes inside, so you need one pair to walk to school and one to wear while in school. I've never had much luck with shoes in the past, cheap or expensive, as they have all worn out pretty quick, but this time was determined to by something that will go the distance. Cue a plea on Facebook for recommended shoe stores in Dunedin. Frames made the top of the very short list, so I headed down there to find they were having a sale, and there, on the sale table was a pair of plain black slip-on size 10s perfect for indoor shoes! I couldn't believe it and probably did an impression of Smeagol grabbing for the One Ring as I snatched them up off the table, tried them on, took an approving few steps and then tucked them safely under my arm for later purchasing. I was also in the market for some sneakers (dress shoes to go with my suit I already have covered) so I hunted around and on another sale table found a nice pair of blue sneakers, size 10. The sole may prove to be a bit soft, but they were comfortable and so I bought them. Now, all I needed was some smart-casuals to wear round town. Frames didn't have anything I like in my size, but on a chance pass-by I stopped in at Dowson's and managed to pick up a couple of pairs I liked. They're not as good quality so I don't expect I'll last, but between them and the sneakers hopefully I'll have shoe-options.

Unfortunately, all of this has to fit in my suitcase, even the shoes as, to save space and weight, I plan to wear my monster hiking boots on the plane (a hassle since I'll no doubt have to take them off to put through the security scanners but still--it means I can hit the ground hiking when I get to Niigata!).


Right so, omyiage--check. Resource--check. Clothes--check. Shoes--check. The only other things I need to pack are toiletries (I'm taking minimal ones of these), tech things (cameras, laptop etc...OMG the laptop! That's a tale for another blog but suffice to say my old one gave out a couple of weeks ago and I now have a shiny new one that I just love), and "Me" things. Josie had a great suggestion about my self introduction to my students: give them a bunch of objects to choose from that represent different aspects of your life and get them to ask you questions about them. But what things?!

I decided to do roughly five aspects of my life: being Kiwi, being a geologist, doing theatre, loving travel, and my friends and family. Being Kiwi is easily covered by any one of the NZ things I've collected. For being a geologist I've decided to take both my compass and my hand lens as both might prove handy for use as well as show-and-tell. For theatre I have a programme from Musical Theatre Dunedin's production of Phantom of the Opera (which I was lucky enough to be involved in--even got my name on the crew list in the programme!), and for loving travel I have a small model of a gargoyle I bought in Westminster Abbey (chosen because of all my various travel souvenirs it is tiny, weighs next to nothing, and should perplex the students enough to make things a little more interesting). If this proves too difficult I also have a charm I bought at Kinkaku-ji when I was in Japan which will be a lot more familiar but perhaps an unexpected item for me to have in my possession. Finally for friends and family I've got a set of laminated photographs of my friend Alyse standing in front of various Dunedin icons with signs spelling out "Will you be my bridesmaid?" (each of which I had to find on an amusing little treasure hunt and which should serve a dual purpose and sharing a little information about my friends as well as my home town). Also I've packed one (ok, two) of my favourite Christmas decorations. My family and I aren't religious at all, but we've adopted Christmas as the time to celebrate being a family and for us it is the most special day of the year. Again, this serves a dual purpose, to present as an aspect of foreign culture to the students, and for me to cry over this December when I will be spending my first ever Christmas away from home (yes, until now I've always managed to come home for Christmas--lucky!). Oh yes, and I'm a bit geeky so I'm also taking my Leaf of Lothlorien brooch, to bust out when I have the obligatory LOTR marathon at some point and who knows? Perhaps one of the sci-fi club members will recognise it?

So give or take a few things, that's what's got to fit into 1x 23kg checked bag and 1x 7kg backpack. Yeah....right...

It immediately became apparent that the textbooks are going to have to be posted (getting excess baggage on the JET group booking sounds like more of a headache than it's worth), but aside from that, after whittling down my list of "want to pack" to the things mentioned above, I've managed to pack everything up into my one checked bag, and one+ carry-on. There's actually room for more, especially in my carry-on back-pack, but I'm already in the red as far as weight is concerned, thanks to a DSLR and my laptop... but only by a little bit. So I'm hoping I might get away with it...fingers crossed!!!

My kit...everything I need to move to Japan! (I hope). It doesn't look much right?

Preparations Part 2 - Omiyage!

Carrying on from my previous post...as I have been assigned to four schools this poses a bit of a problem as far as being able to buy and pack enough small NZ-style treats (omiyage) for all the staff at all my schools to be able to try. Similarly, having something a little bit special for the principal, vice-principal and ALT Supervisor at each of my schools is a bit of an issue as I bought honey for my base school heads and can't afford the money, space or weight to buy more for the other schools' heads.

Quite the pretty problem, which I solved true to form by stepping back only as far as absolutely necessary and consequently still going completely overboard!

As I'd already bought sufficient omiyage for my base school I was now somewhat committed in that I didn't feel like I could reasonably show up to my other schools with less (well, I probably could, but it's not in me to do this). Unfortunately I have been unable to find out exactly how many staff there are at each of my schools, so I've had to have a bit of a guess and run with that. Assuming my base school is the biggest and the mountain school the smallest (with only two JTEs) I've estimated that I need a total of 12 special gifts for school principals, vice-principals and supervisors, approximately 20 little somethings for JTEs, and something in the range of 100 small treats for all the other staff. Fortunately as I was searching the web for ideas the Warehouse had a sale and I was able to buy up a whole box of snack-sized crunchie bars, misc. cadbury bars, freddos and rookie cookies. Yes, lollies would have been smaller and cheaper but apparently the Japanese love our NZ crunchie bars...plus I think there's something ingrained in me that lets me happily spend money on chocolate and not lollies; I don't really like lollies and it seems bad form to give people something to eat you wouldn't want to eat yourself. While I couldn't reasonably get honey for the heads of my additional three schools I've made do with giving them extra helpings of the various goodies. The flip side of this of course is that for the past two weeks I've had a truly astonishing amount of chocolate sitting in a box in the corner of my room, leading to the even more astonishing fact that I've resisted the temptation to eat it!

All of the "special omiyage" I've also given a single taster of a NZ tea, and along with the rest of the goodies tied up in little cellophane gift bags with a silver fern charm and a greenstone bead tied on the ribbon (as symbols of NZ, explained in minimal English in a little card attached). I've also included a small shiny paua shell with each one, on a bit of a whim, to be something non-edible that will be a lasting gift from NZ, and me personally--I collected them all myself from the beach south of Riverton while on the TA. (Note: yes I have cleaned and polished them up a bit, but fortunately the sand had already done a pretty good job). I only hope they like them!

Omiyage...well, about half of it!

So yes, I have gone completely overboard with omiyage. Oh well...I often get a little too invested in the whole "making gifts up for people" thing. That, and I'm concerned that I'm going to make some serious cultural faux pars during my first several weeks in Japan and I think on some level I'm hoping that awesome omiyage might help keep the overall impression of my presence on the positive side! (As I mentioned in my previous post, my predecessor broke contract and left my schools with a bad impression, so anything I can do to remedy that has got to be a good thing).

The good news is, after trial-packing and then more tightly repacking all the omiyage I've somehow managed to fit it all in to my suitcase! Unfortunately the pineapple lumps I bought for my regional advisors don't fit...but I'm hoping I've been over-generous with my guesses and that there'll be enough crunchie bars at least to give a few with my neighbours (to whom it is also polite to give an edible gift to when you first move in).

Only time will tell I guess. Fingers crossed it all doesn't melt into gunge in the 30 degree heat on route! (But if it does, oh well, I tried, and there are worse things in life than a bit of melted chocolate).

Preparations Part 1 - Teaching Resources

I think I'm a victim of my own spare time. While some incoming JETs have been working full time right up until departure later this week, I've literally had nothing but JET-prep to worry about. However, when you've got all the time in the world you find all sorts of things that can be done, useful things, but things that might be done faster, more efficiently or not at all if time was of the essence and some triage is necessary. I am capable of this mode of operation--I only hope it kicks in once I get to Japan.

And so the last three weeks have gone incredibly quickly and you'd think that with all the time in the world I'd be more than ready to go! I'm not...but I am close.

So, what have I been up to? Well...

I've been in touch with the Regional Advisers in Niigata Prefecture, and one in particular has being going out of his way to help me get crucial information. Through him I found out that I am going to be working in not one but four schools! I'll be at my base school two days a week and at the other three one day a week each. Three of the four are within walking distance of where I'll be living (<2km or so) and one is a 45 minute drive away up in the mountains (yay!). So, I will have to get a car. It seems that there is a good long term rental service set up for JETs so I'll look into this further when I get to Joetsu.

In the meantime, going from prepping for one school to four required a bit of a mental shift. I'd hitherto devoted a lot of time to prepping materials targeted at my base school, a Super Science School. Now I had three more schools to prep for, which at first felt overwhelming how much I'd already invested in prepping for just one school up to that point. I felt guilty about not now having enough time (or money most likely) to prepare materials for the other three schools to the same degree. But of course, many of my resources will be able to be used in all four schools (they are all high schools fortunately), so it really wasn't as big of a deal as it seemed at first. That said, assembling materials has been no small task.

I'd been in contact with both the principal and my supervising Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) at my base school to see what resources they'd like me to bring with me. They requested NZ-themed things, maps and science textbooks. To this end I've been trawling TradeMe and various other online stores, as well as visiting various bookstores and second hand stores around Dunedin. FYI, in case you'd forgotten (like I had), textbooks are expensive! Especially when you want to buy more than one. In the end I settled on some from the Oxford University Press as NZ-textbooks seem to targeted toward individual NCEA assessments (DON'T get me started on NCEA...I was the first year to endure it), and the ones from the UK were both visually more engaging and cheaper!

As well as textbooks I thought some eye-catching posters might be a good idea so in addition to buying up some geology-related ones I've always wanted an excuse to get, I did a walk around of all the science departments at the university to see if they had any they didn't want any more. I received the full spectrum of responses, but if there had been a poster-provision competition the physics department would have won hands down for content and appearance, and the zoology department for generosity and helpfulness. You guys rock!

In addition to sourcing academic resources I also sent out emails to NZ national organisation equivalents of all of the clubs at my base school to see if they could send me a flier (or something) I could take to use as an authentic English language text that would be relevant to the students' interests. The response from this was very positive, with about half of the organisations sending me stuff to take with me. For the remainder I've been trawling the internet to find some kind of flier or poster I can print out (when I get to Japan).

One of four fliers I found online giving short descriptions of various basketball skills.

Only one club doesn't have a NZ equivalent--the Hyakunin Isshu Karuta club. I'll discuss this greater detail in another post (karuta is a pet interest of mine), but suffice to say here that it is a card-game-come-sport involving 100 playing cards each printed with one of a 100-strong anthology (the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu) of hundreds of years old Japanese poems. Only in Japan would an art like poetry be seamlessly turned into a sport--and a highly competitive one at that! Partly for the club and partly for my own interest I decided to make a poster comprising the 100 karuta cards with the poems printed in English instead of Japanese...whereupon I entered the minefield that is the vast range of translations that can be had from one language to another, particularly where poetry is concerned.

Karuta playing cards

A pro-karuta match in full swing...literally.

In the end I settled on a translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu by Professor Joseph Mostow of the University of British Columbia and pinged him an email to ask if he minded me using them. He was very happy for me to do so and even requested seeing a copy of the poster when I was done. So, the poster is made and printed...but I'm now doing that typical thing I do and having doubts about whether or not to give it to the karuta club or not. This is mainly because for the purposes of karuta the sequence of similar sounding words in the poems is critical to game strategy, but in translation these sequences are completely lost. There is another translation out there which preserves it, and I can't help feeling that although it may be a more constrained translation, it might be more relevant to the karuta club's interest in the poems. Oh well, that's a problem to be faced another day. I can always update the poster another time (typing out 100 poems takes some time and right now I have more pressing matters).

Right, so, that's resources etc. more or less covered, but that wasn't the real problem going from one to four schools presented. In Japan there is a tradition of giving a gift, called "omiyage", when you return (or in my case arrive) from a foreign (or even regional) locale. Omiyage are traditionally small edible items (must be individually wrapped!) and while not required, come highly recommended as something for incoming JETs to organise as it helps make a good first impression with your new bosses and colleagues...by showing them you understand and are keen to partake in Japanese customs (or else just blatantly bribing them with sweets). The thing with omiyage is that you should bring enough for everyone to try, and you should get something a little bit special for the heads of the school (principal and vice-principal), and your supervisor (who is supposed to be responsible for helping you settle in). The most special thing should go to the principal, then the vice-principal and so-on. My base school has 50 staff in total including 10 JTEs (I'd planned to get a little extra something for each of them as well since these are the teachers I'll be working with personally).  Having already committed a certain amount of money as well as luggage space and weight to omiyage for my base school, the immediate questions was: how many staff do my other schools have?! I was having visions of lugging two suitcases to the airport--one for me and one full of omiyage. Not an option! I am determined for logistics and financial reasons to take one checked bag and one checked bag only!

See my next post for this solution to this little conundrum...

Groundwork

Well, I'm glad to report its been a very productive few days.

It's now July which means there's less than a month until the other JETs and I leave for Japan--eee! It also means there's less than a month to practice Tenei Matou, the song I and the other Wellington JETs are going to perform at the Farewell Dinner at the Japanese Ambassador's house just before we leave. While there's a video on YouTube of a Kapa Haka group performing Tenei Matou that we've been using to learn the actions, a lot of people aren't putting the time in or are nervous about learning the actions. Unfortunately being in Dunedin I can't call a rehearsal to take them through it, so instead I've made a video with tips for "First-Time Maori Action Song Performers", and made a second copy of the original video with an inset of me doing the actions as viewed from the back (it's not flattering but hopefully it'll prevent half the group unconsciously learning the mirror image of the actions!). I've also put the words in as subtitles for good measure. Beyond sending out a few email reminders (once I get the mailing list) I'm not sure what else I can do to motivate people. Happily I've got two cohorts in Wellington, Jasper and Kimberley, who are both motivated and willing to take the lead as and when group rehearsals get called. We'll have a full rehearsal on the day--fingers crossed everyone puts in a little bit of effort between now and then!

Other achievements this week...I've bought a map! A really cool map!...of New Zealand, showing the bathymetry around our little country and making it look like the rather large continent it actually is (geologically speaking; it's called Zealandia). So basically it's a picture of NZ from an unusual perspective and has very pretty colour scheme that I hope will catch the eye of students passing in the hallways, and maybe even get members of the Geoscience Club (yes, this high school has a Geoscience Club--awesome!) to stop and go "Ooo, wow! Check out that trench!", or something along those lines (they should be able to do this as Japan has one too). I'm also planning to take a geological map of NZ, just as soon as I can pick one up from GNS.

I love this--I hope my students will too!
(When is New Zealand not New Zealand?...When it's Zealandia!)

Also, I've lined up which textbooks I want to get hold of. I've got absolutely no money at the moment but I'm expecting something to come in next week so then I should be able to buy them online and get them delivered just in time for me to take them to Japan. Ditto the upside-down map of the world Kocho-sensei requested. So there's two ticks off that to-do list (or will be once I can action them).

Setting up a joint-venture between Japan and NZ...no small task!

Another thing Kocho-sensei has requested me to do is to try and find out if any secondary schools or universities would be interested in getting involved in a joint-venture with our school in Japan to enable students to present their work to each other, or perhaps even work collaboratively on one or more research projects. It's an ambitious goal to be sure, but one I'm hopeful of reaching. I've sent out a few feeler emails this week and am happy to report that so far the response has been very positive! My old high school is keen to get on board, and referrals via other emails is putting me in touch with people who might be able to provide advice about how to get such a programme up and running. I'm keen to lay as much groundwork as possible on the New Zealand end before I go, as it only makes sense to meet and greet interested parties while I can still do it in person.

Finally, separate pleas for help with choosing appropriate textbooks and with setting up the joint-venture that I put out on the KiwiJET Facebook page met with really helpful responses from Kiwi JETs already in Japan. One in particular is about to start her 4th year of being an ALT and as well as providing lots of great advice has told me to get in touch with her anytime about anything if I have any more questions. No doubt I will! I'm exceedingly grateful for such a kind offer, from her, but also several other past and present JETs I've been in contact with. Everyone is so nice and helpful! (I know this can't literally be the case, but the unhelpful ones don't respond online so you're not really aware they're there...). So for now I have a completely biased and very positive view of how wonderful the JET community is. However, I'm sure this will be borne out when I start meeting more JETs in person. The 4th year JET that was so helpful is based in the same Prefecture as me, in a city just north of Joetsu, so I'm sure we'll cross paths at some point. Can't wait!

First Contact

Wow, so this week has really got everything in motion!

After emailing Natasha, my JET-coordination contact at the prefectural level, to confirm I had received my placement details I found out that my predecessor (the outgoing JET who I am replacing and who would normally be the source of all wisdom and information about my particular placement) broke contract and is not around any more! Worse than that, he left on bad terms with his school and his fellow JETS! Potentially this is not a good situation to be walking into as it can leave the school with a very bad taste in their mouths about having an ALT. Apparently my predecessor's reason for leaving was personal though, not anything to do with the school, so I'm hopeful that it wasn't the result of the school being a pressure-cooker workplace. That said, I am expecting my school to be a tough place to work that demands a high level of achievement from both staff and students...any place designated a "super" anything school is bound to be like that right? Happily the person who usually puts the most pressure on me is me (I'm one of those people that sees in my mind what I set out to achieve, what I actually achieved...and the great gaping hole in between!), so at least I already know I'm my own worst enemy! I'll just have to keep an eye on myself while I'm in Japan and remember to mentally take a step back on occasion. I'm confident I'll be alright as long as I can keep the irrational perfectionist side of myself under control...or at least give it a productive outlet somewhere so that it can feel like it's achieving something even if everything else is going to hell in a hay basket.

All this aside, everything else I've received has been really positive information. Earlier this week I got an email from my school principal (kocho-sensei)). Fortunately the email was in English, and rather good English at that, so at a purely communicative level I am hopeful of being able to exchange necessary and required information with my school colleagues. Kocho-sensei introduced himself and his school, and shared some of the history and aspects of both the school and Joetsu City. He was keen to reassure me "not to worry about my life in Joetsu" and that my students would be gentle and diligent, though shy. On this note he shared his eagerness for his students to become more engaged and excited by English, and his hope that they will become comfortable with presenting their work in English.Cue my reply, asking for advice on anything and everything he can suggest that I can bring or prepare in advance that the students would find interesting and would help spark their enthusiasm for English. He promptly wrote back requesting photos, posters and other materials we can put up in the school halls so that students get to see and be stimulated everyday, and has also asked for high-school level science textbooks (I immediately put out a plea to my teacher friends on Facebook about where I might source some of these second hand; I can't take many in my luggage allowance, but one each of biology, chemistry and physics that I can take and make photocopies from should be doable).

Upside-down world map...a new perspective, no?

Curiously Kocho-sensei also requested an upside down world map, saying he first encountered one
while on an English language course in Sydney and found it fascinating. I've never seen one myself, but having now googled I can see why! It completely changes you're perspective on the world and I have determined to take one with me as I'm sure it will get the students to take a second look at Japan and its place within the rest of the world. (The advantage of getting one in NZ rather than the more common American ones is that NZ and Japan are in the middle of the map and not squished out to one side!).

Kocho-sensei also forwarded my email to two of the nine Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs...yeah, I know....between that and JET you wouldn't want to be dyslexic!) at the school so that they might contact me directly if they too had any further requests or suggestions. I hope to hear back from them. I'm getting really excited now about putting some teaching materials together. I so hope the students are excited by what I come up with!

Finally, this week I also got in touch with the people who organise the Niigata JET charity musical. This year's show (actually performed in January, but rehearsed this year) is going to be Dracula! Auditions are on the 14th of August which doesn't give me much time to settle in or prepare the required two performance pieces. Happily I don't really care what I do though, and the musical is such that anyone who wants to be involved gets involved, so I'm sure they'll be able to find a place for me somewhere.

2017 Niigata JET Charity Musical...auditions coming soon!

So much to look forward to!