Archive for December, 2013
December 18, 2003 – Robocop 3 is terrible
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Movies on December 18, 2013
In order to fight off my cold, I cancelled language practice and a post work trip to Roppongi. In the evening I decided to drink some cold green tea, because generally makes you feel better when you have a cold. I now know that some kinds of green tea have as much or more caffiene than coffee does. Needless to say I ended up watching late night TV by myself.
For the record, Robocop 3 sucks. I am not talking “is just bad”, it really, really sucks. They took out a lot of the violence and dark sense of humour, then added a robot ninja and Robocop with a jetpack. Seriously. Bad.
December 17, 2003 – The Canadian Ambassador has arrived
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on December 17, 2013
Why yes I do always travel with a Canadian flag and a laminated map of Canada.
Today I had my special Canada voice class. I got two class periods to talk about and take questions about Canada. I wish I had more time!
After a brief introduction, I ran through comparisons of Japan to Canada (population, area, GDP, exports, etc.) and took questions. After the break, I showed off some of my pictures from Canada, including lots of snowy winter pictures. Then it was time for “Canada: Myth or Fact”, where I gave some popular stereotypes about Canada and the students had to decide if they were true or not. Some examples include “Hockey is Canada’s national sport”, “Canada doesn’t have an army” and “All Canadians leave their doors unlocked”. (all myth BTW).
Basically I got paid to talk about Canada for 80 minutes today. Life is good.
December 16, 2003 – Comparisions
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on December 16, 2013
I taught a special Club 7 voice on comparisons tonight. Yep, 80 minutes of the proper use of comparison words. Whee.
(2013 Update)
Club 7 is a regularly scheduled 2 class voice session just for the lowest levels of English students. The idea is to give the lower level students a non threatening place to speak and listen to English. Usually there is a topic appropriate for the group to help build English skills. In addition to comparison words, other popular topics are family words, prepositions, adjectives and verbs. With some more experience I could have really had some fun with comparison words. It would have been better than the lesson I taught at the time (see what I did there…)
Life in Noborito – The Stoop
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Lux, Shenanigans on December 12, 2013
Other than the common living room area, there was one more hub of social activity at Hello House: The Stoop. The Stoop was the unofficial name of the front steps from the street to the main entrance of Hello House East.
Since smoking in a room with a tatami mat floor is very bad idea, the stoop was the de facto smoking area for Hello House. In addition to smokers, other people would hang out and chat, watching the residents come and go. I spent many nights hanging out with Lux on the front steps.
My favourite Stoop story involved a night where I was hanging out with Lux and likely a few other people. Hello House was down the street from a Hostess Bar that catered to middle aged business men. It could be argued that most Hostess Bars cater to middle aged business men, but this one definitely captured a 40-55 crowd with almost no exceptions. On one particular night, the hostesses were saying goodbye to a group of about 3 very drunk business men. The men were walking down the street towards Hello House, when one of them stopped to pee on the wall across the street.
Public urination is not entirely uncommon in Japan, especially among drunk businessmen (or English teachers). However, usually most people will take the time to go down an alley or somewhere away from people. Not this guy, he decided he was going to relieve himself directly across from a group of English teachers who were sitting outside. Lux decided that this was not appropriate behaviour and decided to loudly let the man know.
“HEY! That’s disgusting! I don’t come and piss in front of your house! Yeah you! I know you can understand me!!”
This didn’t slow the man down at all. If anything it gave him a little bit of a swagger when he shook out the last few drops and walked away.
Most of the time hanging out on the stoop didn’t involve entertaining public urination, but it was still a fun place to spend some time and chat with the other Hello House residents.
A note about the picture: I took this picture during a visit to Noborito in 2006, right before I left Japan. I am glad that I did, because not long after Hello House East and West were sold and flattened to make room for a new development. Goodbye Stoop! You are gone but not forgotten.
December 8, 2003 – High pressure sales in Shibuya
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Tokyo on December 8, 2013
I went wandering around in Jiyugaoka and Shibuya today, doing some sightseeing and early Christmas shopping. The area around Jiyugaoka station is full of classy, stores and restaurants. Shibuya is simply crowded and insanely busy.
While wandering around Shibuya, I was approached by a friendly African guy who spoke English. He literally dragged me into his nearby hip hop clothing store. Being the only customer in a store while the owner is watching over you hoping to make a sale is pretty awkward. He was prepared to offer me a 30% discount “just for me”, but I had no money and the clothes just weren’t my thing. He actually looked pretty sad when I left.
Shibuya is a confusing maze. It took me over 30 minutes to find my way back to the station again, where I got the pleasure of riding the most crowded train in the world, and then transferring to the most crowded train in the history of existence. Not a fun shopping trip.
(partial rewrite of original post)
December 7, 2003 – Tsumaranai sensei
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on December 7, 2013
I was a little tired from the late movie from the previous night, so was not at my best when I had a one on one lesson with a 5 year old girl. Fresh out of kids training I decided to sit at the table and follow the lesson plan to the letter. The student had her own agenda for the class, which did not include sitting still and repeating English.
The class was 40 minutes long but felt like a 2 hour long dental appointment. At the end, she looked directly at me and told me I was “tsunaranai sensei” which means “boring teacher”. I resisted the urge to tell her how I felt about her, but with my luck those would be the only English words she learned and I would be on the next flight home.
December 6, 2003 – The Last Samurai
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Movies on December 6, 2013
After work I went to Shinyurigaoka for dinner and a movie with Yumi. Okonomiyaki is like an omelette pancake with egg, cabbage and meats or vegetables of your choice. You grill it at your table and cover it with delicious sauce. It is delicious and a lot of fun to cook. Seriously, you have to eat this.
After dinner we went to see the Last Samurai at a large movie theatre. This movie theatre, like many in Japan, had reserved seating! This should be standard at every movie theatre. Nobody likes to show up an hour early to get a good seat for a popular movie. The movie, like most foreign movies shown in Japan, was subtitled and not dubbed. Fortunately for me they also provided English subtitles when the characters were speaking Japanese, something that Kill Bill didn’t do.
I was worried that the crowd would be a bit uncomfortable with the hero of the story being a gaijin, and Emperor Meiji being a bit of a weak character. However, everyone in the crowd liked the movie, especially the strong performance of Ken Watanabe. After the movie I ended up catching the last train back to Noborito. Good times!
December 5, 2003 – First group kids class
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on December 5, 2013
(Original 2003 post)
Today was my first group kids class by myself. It is not easy to get 8 kids to pay attention to learning English for 40 minutes straight! I guess that is the difference between a good teacher and me.
(2013 update)
After only a few months as an English teacher, I was starting to feel mostly competent in the classroom, until I started teaching English to children. Unlike adult lessons where you don’t really know who will show up, the kids classes are scheduled at the same time every week with the same group. Adult lessons generally have students who are paying good money to learn English. The kids have no such personal investment in learning. I eventually became okay at teaching kids classes, but it was always my weakest point as a teacher.
Drinking in Japan 
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