Archive for January, 2018
October 11, 2006 – Married with Children
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on January 19, 2018
Working during my overtime day with a cold killed my voice, meaning I couldn’t teach today. Sorry NOVA!
I did my best to recover – lots of sleep, lots of tea and vitamin C drinks, and I binge watched Married With Children.
MWC was one of my favourite shows as a teenager: in addition to laughing at the continuous failures of Al Bundy, I had a huge crush on Kelly. The show is still funny now, although I found myself getting really annoyed by the excessive laugh track. My only other complaint was that they couldn’t get the rights to the song “Love and Marriage” to open the episode on the DVD release, so they simply dubbed in some generic music over the title cards which is pretty weak.
October 10, 2006 – Overtime day
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English, The Penpal on January 19, 2018
Today, by request from management, I worked a rare overtime shift. I really value my 2 day weekend, but this was an early shift and it’s hard to turn down extra money right before I’m move back to Canada.
Work was busy but not terribly difficult. I was fighting a bit of a cold, so my voice was starting to disappear by the end of the day.
After work I went out for dinner with The Penpal and one of her church friends, who is quite possibly the friendliest person in the whole world. Even though I gave up half of my weekend, my day didn’t turn out too badly!
October 9, 2006 – Shinto shrine Bingo!
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, The Penpal on January 4, 2018
There are around 100,000 Shinto shrines in Japan ranging in size from massive structures like Mishima Taisha down to tiny miniature shrines on the side of the road. The Penpal has a neighbourhood shrine near her house, and today I was invited to the annual festival where her father volunteers.
The neighbourhood shrine was small, but was surrounded by a large courtyard where I found the usual stalls that are found at festivals around the country: yakisoba, yakitori, takoyaki, and some treats for the kids. As I was filling myself full of delicious yakitori, I started to notice that I was the ONLY person at the festival who wasn’t Japanese. Many of the people seemed surprised to see a gaijin at the neighbourhood festival. Even after 3 years in Japan, it’s still fun to surprise people by eating with chopsticks or speaking Japanese, both things that aren’t normally expected from a foreigner.
In addition to the food, there was also a free bingo game with lots of prizes. As people got bingo, they got to choose a prize from the prize table. Eventually it was my turn to get a bingo, and I proudly walked to the prize table at the front of the crowd, smiling as people stared at me. I chose a badminton set, which was probably not ideal considering that I’m moving back to Canada in about a month.
In the evening I got to enjoy a wonderful home cooked meal at The Penpal’s house, a treat for someone who eats convenience store and pub food far too often. After dinner, I was shown the family photo album including pictures of The Penpal as a kid. Japanese people as a rule don’t smile for pictures, but The Penpal took that a step further looking positively annoyed at having her picture taken.
When we had embarrassed my fiancee thoroughly, the Penpal and her mother went to wash the dishes. What came next was the highlight of the evening: I was watching TV with The Penpal’s father, my future father-in-law, when he handed me the remote control for the TV. I think this means that I am now officially accepted into the family! Hooray!
October 7, 2006 – Renovations during lessons
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on January 3, 2018
My usual Saturday evening teaching partner Molly was on vacation. Due to the ongoing teacher shortages in the area, I was the only teacher in the building for the last 4 lessons of the evening. Each of my classes was at its 4 student capacity, making for a busy evening.
During the afternoon, right before my group kids class, one of the branch staff decided to replace the filters in the air conditioning units in each of the kids rooms. I’m not sure why they decided to start this right before a group class – usually the staff go out of their way to avoid disrupting lessons. When the lesson started, there was still a ladder in the middle of the room.
Realizing that a bunch of energetic children in a small room with a ladder was a disaster waiting to happen, I decided to improvise and moved my group into the unoccupied Voice room.
In branches that have dedicated NOVA kids classrooms, these rooms are specifically designed to teach children. There are teaching materials on the walls, high shelves for anything that the kids shouldn’t get at, and a total lack of furniture. The Voice room was designed with adults in mind – there was a giant movable white board, tables, chairs, maps, and all kinds of English books and magazines. The kids were so distracted by everything in the room that the 40 minute lesson flew by. It was one of my easier kids classes ever!
Drinking in Japan 
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