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January is over! It only gets warmer from here! (I say this as the last week of January was in the 50s, and February suddenly plunged back below freezing . . . ).

Recontracting

On February 1st, I signed my contract for another year with JET. This was the easy decision; I had decided going in I would stay at least two years and nothing truly traumatic has happened to make me change my mind, so I didn’t even think much about the possibility of returning home this summer. Next year (and subsequent years, if relevant) is when it will get trickier. At the moment I’m thinking no to a third year, but it’s cold and it’s been cold for the majority of my time here; I’ll have to stay conscious of how I enjoy my time in Hagi for the next full year because if I put the decision off until next February I’m sure I’ll say no simply because it will be cold again. I’ll need to gauge how much the job is fulfilling me (I feel like after two years even the fun and fulfillment I derive from interacting with the kids may stop compensating from my boredom and frustration with how little I actually do in the classroom—and I don’t want to become totally complacently lazy here, either!) and simply how plausible it is to come home: How much money do I have saved up? Can I live off it for a while if I don’t get employed right away? What and where will my living situation be? I got lucky having a sweet deal set up as soon as I graduated from college, but it’s practically impossible I will have that a second time. I likely will spend some time unemployed, and depending on circumstances I might fill my time with some classes or something, but it’s still a scary thought, *not knowing.* However, that part won’t change whether I leave in 2011 or 2014 so staying longer does necessarily help me out a whole lot; I have to make the call about the job itself and expect (and be prepared for—there are things I can do even if they’re not as much as I’d like) a weird limbo of searching upon my return whether I’m 24 or 27.

But for now, it’s as if I simply signed up for a two-year contract in the first place. None of the conditions change; I’ve still got the same assignment with the same salary, insurance, costs of living, etc until August 2011. The only thing that’s going to change is changing because of the upcoming new school year in April and has nothing to do with my contract.
In effort to bring the ALTs more frequently to the outlier schools like the elementary and junior high schools in Ooi and Ooshima, we now have split-day schedules for all but our base schools. Instead of rotating Tuesdays between Ooi ES and Ooi JHS and Thursdays between Ooshima ES and JHS, I will go to both Ooi schools on all Tuesdays and both Ooshima schools on all Thursdays. I’ve done a double-day a couple times at Ooshima already in an effort to make up a visits cancelled due to weather and sick leave taken by my cooperating teacher, but I don’t really like covering two schools in one day.

The schedule for both junior high and elementary schools is four classes in the morning and two in the afternoon after lunch, break, and cleaning time. I’m pretty sure the schedule will be junior high in the morning and elementary school in the afternoon, since English is required for all grades of junior high but only 5th and 6th grade in elementary school. Since I’ll only ever have two periods at elementary, I expect they’ll be consistently earmarked for the 5th and 6th graders’ required classes—which means few to no fun, self-directed classes with the really little kids. I like the 5th and 6th grade students, but since they have a nationally-standardized textbook the teachers seldom like me to depart from it; it’s not as much fun to teach. And the 1st and 2nd graders are just so darn cute-- I’d be sad if I never got to teach them again. (And if I never teach them, would they ever give me lunch with them? They wouldn’t know who I am!). Actually, I have no idea where I’d eat lunch, either; it seems fair they would rotate me back and forth between each junior high and elementary for lunch as would be the case if we still rotated the entire school, but I don’t know if that’s what will happen. I’d be sad if I never got lunchtime or break with the students of any of my schools, because that’s the best time to interact with them.

I guess I’ll find out in April.

Groundhog Day

I spent February 2nd, Groundhog Day, at Ooi Elementary. I mentioned that the elementary school teachers are usually pretty skeptical about departing from the textbook during lessos, but usually I’m given some time to explain major holidays the teachers are aware of, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, etc. However, Groundhog Day does not really register on most foreign calendars, seeing as how it’s an indigenous American holiday and fairly minor at that—but I did sneak in a little “Guess what’s special about today?” bit after asking them about the date/day of the week.

It ended up taking more time than I thought, because everyone got very hung up on what exactly a groundhog is. I was doing most of my explanation in Japanese, because for holidays in elementary school this is the only way they’re going to understand (even at the junior high school level the teachers always end up translating a good part of my explanations when I do them in English) unless I want to spent eight hours doing charades—and I usually only get something like ten minutes to talk about non-textbook things. I described it as something not quite a squirrel, not quite a badger, but something like them who lives underground. One boy asked if it were a meerkat, and I said that was kind of close, I guess—but then other kids asked “Is it like a monkey?” “Is it like a bear?” I had tried to draw a picture—hadn’t thought to print out an actual one, though I did for Thanksgiving (live turkeys are hilarious, especially if you’ve never even eaten cooked turkey before)—but eventually I just had to say, “Well, whatever it is, it comes out of the ground on the morning of February 2nd, and if it sees its shadow, gets scared, and goes back into his hole, there will be six more weeks of winter.” Then I was informed there is a similar spring-divining practice in Japan, involving a type of worm, but with no specific holiday attached to watching them.

When I came home the Writer’s Block question of the day on Livejournal was about Groundhog Day; I perused through other people’s answers and was surprised to see how many English-speakers had also never heard of a groundhog or didn’t realize it was a real animal. There were also many people basically familiar with the holiday but thought it is actually a celebration of the first day a groundhog wakes up from hibernation.

I guess I never realized how obscure Groundhog Day really is. I know it’s an American/Canadian holiday, not something pervasive throughout the world or English-speaking culture, but it’s such a disappointingly low priority even amongst Americans. I’ve always been fond of it, though; I remember when I was in elementary school I considered it right up there with Valentine’s Day, one of only two major holidays in February. (What the heck is President’s Day? They only decided to start giving us that off midway through elementary school anyway). You didn’t get school off for Groundhog Day or Valentine’s Day, and in some ways Groundhog Day was better because more people can relate to six more weeks of winter (at least in northern Indiana) than mushy Valentine’s Day fluff. And there’s a animal mascot. Valentine’s Day cards are sprinkled indiscriminately with cuteness, sometimes in the form of animals or characters, but Groundhog Day has one specific creature to hail. And, come on, he’s cute.
So I like Groundhog Dog—even if I don’t always like the alleged outcome. I hear Mr. Punxsutawney Phil has forecast six more weeks of winter. I hope his predictions do not forecast worldwide, or I may invite him to Japan and steal his furry coat to use for the next month and a half :-P

Valentine’s Day

While Groundhog Day doesn’t register on Japanese calendars, Valentine’s Day does. So after completing the What I Did On Vacation/For New Years circuit (it takes about a month for me to visit each class with a holiday explanation) I’ve now started on Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is a fun one to talk about because it has equal weight in Japan and the West but different intentions and customs. (Whereas New Year is bigger here than at home, while Christmas is bigger in the States than Japan and Thanksgiving doesn’t exist in Japan at all).

Japanese Valentine’s Day is . . . one-sided. It started out semi-romantically: girls give chocolate to the boys they like. It’s most commonly manifested in teenage girls nursing long-term unrequited crushes delivering anonymous chocolate into the cubbies of their beloved, or girls in relationships giving chocolate to already-established boyfriends, but I’m sure every once and a while there’s a sweet revelation that leads to some sort of hookup. Naturally the school heartthrobs get more chocolate than they can finish in a month while some of their peers get nothing at all. However, amongst adults—who being mostly married must find the crush chocolate thing irrelevant— the holiday has become about obligation gifts; females give chocolate to their male coworkers, most importantly their male superiors.

The girls do get their turn on March 14th, a Valentine’s Day Part II called White Day, when boys who received chocolate must decide which girls they like and return the gift threefold. Naturally it’s quite devastating as a girl if you don’t get any chocolate back. (And in South Korea, there’s even Black Day on April 14th, when girls whose Valentine advances are spurned and boys who never received chocolate in the first place go to a noodle shop to slurp uncut black noodles and mourn their single life—happy holiday, eh?). Obligation chocolate, however, obligates a return gift; males who receive chocolate from their female coworkers are required to return the favor—and the threefold rule still applies. (I remember Reiko sighing about how much they were going to have to spend on gifts for Kiyokazu’s nurses as we worked slowly through box after box of gift chocolate during February).

So I explain that White Day doesn’t exist in the US, and that Valentine’s Day is more about established couples and both genders are responsible for gifts (though frankly the burden usually falls more on the male). And it’s not all about chocolate; you can get a big heart-shaped box of chocolates or whatever, but there’s also roses, jewelry, dinner dates—or just anything you think your partner would enjoy. I think historically Valentine’s Day was about revealing your affections to a new partner—hence all the “Be my Valentine!” and “Be Mine!” declarations—but I don’t think many people these days use Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to initiate a relationship. We kind of have the obligation chocolate thing in elementary school, with class Valentine’s Day parties and students being required to bring Valentine cards and treats (which need not be chocolate) for every student in the class, but that disappears as you become an adult instead of becoming more important. And everybody can enjoy Valentine’s treats if they want to have them: Valentine-themed cupcakes or cookies, chocolate colored or wrapped in pink and red, and of course conversation hearts. (I wish I had some way of sharing them with my students; I know 90% of them would hate them—especially as most Americans hate them—but I’m such a sadist, lol).

In one of my classes, the students made Valentine cards. They were fun to grade, since I got to see the students’ creativity and artistic ability come out. Most of the girls ate it up, cutting out hearts with scalloped edges for their cards and filling them with bows, hearts, and cute characters like Hello Kitty or Miffy. (I did tell them that cartoon character Valentines are very popular). One girl made a Valentine for her favorite boy band. Some of the guys got into it, though sometimes in awkward ways; one boy drew a purple gangster rabbit shooting a pink girl rabbit falling dramatically through the “Happy Valentine’s Day!” text—with a random candy cane in the background.

The students have a page in their textbook about holiday cards en masse, so though I talked about making Valentine cards—red/pink/white, lace/bows, hearts, glitter, characters, to/from, expressions (“Be Mine” “Be My Valentine” “Happy Valentine’s Day!” “I Love You”—not all necessarily being absolutely sincere, so you can give them to your friends), etc— a few of them got confused. A couple made Happy Birthday cards (which all read “Happy Birthday . . . and many happy returns!”—obviously lifting directly from their textbook, because I’ve probably only heard one person say “and many happy returns!” ever, lol) and a few combined several holidays, wishing “Happy Valentine’s Day, many happy returns, and best wishes for the new year!” or bedecking their backgrounds with birthday hats, clover, and Christmas gifts. It cracked me up. You can really tell who was paying attention to my talk.