September 14, 2004 – The Blue Parrot
Posted by Barniferous in Greater Tokyo Area, Life in Japan, Tokyo on September 14, 2014
A picture of The Blue Parrot from tokyosurvival.com
Today I actually woke up at a decent hour and headed to Tokyo for a day of shopping.
Since I am doing a lot of reading on the train to and from work, I was looking to buy some new books. Terry from Hello House recommended a used English book store in Tokyo called Blue Parrot. I took the Odakyu line from Noborito to Shinjuku, then switched to the Yamanote line bound for Takadanobaba.
Blue Parrot was well hidden near the station. The store was tiny, but filled floor to ceiling with used English books, CDs, and movies. Shopping for used books is always an adventure, because there are no guarantees on what you will find. I ended up walking out with some new books, a set of English – Japanese / Japanese – English dictionaries, and some CDs.
From Takadanobaba I took the Yamanote line towards Akihabara. The goal was to look for a new camera, but there were way too many stores and too many choices in each store. It was fun exploring Akihabara, but I didn’t end up buying anything.
After striking out on camera shopping, I took the Keihin Tokoku line to Yokohama. I bought a few souvenirs for my family, and a few more books for me at a new book store. My messenger bag was loaded with heavy books for my two trains back to Noborito. It was a fun day with a whole lot of walking. I was very happy to get home and unload all of the books.
(2014 Update) The Blue Parrot closed in the past few years, which is sad news.
September 13, 2004 – Tiger Mask
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on September 13, 2014
I woke up with a headache and a raspy voice thanks to the farewell party last night. Consequently, I spent most of the day being VERY lazy. At some point I finally got off my butt and went out to rent a movie. I found the pro wrestling section of my favourite video rental store, and ended up coming home with an awesome tape of Tiger Mask matches.
Tiger Mask is a wrestling character based on a manga hero. He wrestles a high flying style while wearing his famous tiger head mask. To date, Tiger Mask has been portrayed by four different wrestlers. I believe that the tape I rented featured the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama in matches against Dynamite Kid and a very young Bret Hart. Sayama was Tiger Mask in the early 80’s, but his matches (especially against Dynamite Kid) featured a fast paced, hard hitting, exciting style that was well ahead of their time. If you are a pro wrestling fan, you NEED to watch some Tiger Mask matches.
In addition to Tiger Mask, I also watched Paycheck, which could have been a lot better.
(2014 Update) In 2010, amazing pro wrestler / MMA fighter Ikuhisa Minowa became the fifth person to officially portray Tiger Mask.
September 12, 2004 – Karaoke!
Posted by Barniferous in Karaoke on September 12, 2014
After a relaxing day at Keikyu school, I went to an impromptu farewell party for the former head teacher at Kawasaki NOVA. He was moving on to NOVA’s head office in Osaka to work on the new textbooks.
In addition to his promotion, he was also the winner of the Kawasaki NOVA Olympic medal pool. He generously treated everyone to drinks at Hub Pub with his winnings. After Hub we went to karaoke. I love karaoke!
One of the regular songs in my karaoke rotation is “Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears. Tonight I ad-libbed some reasonably inappropriate lyrics that I won’t reprint here. They did get a good laugh from my coworkers.
September 11, 2004 – Early Saturday
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on September 11, 2014
I got to work an early shift on Saturday for a change! It was strange for me to have a Saturday evening free.
September 10, 2004 – CAT training
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on September 11, 2014
Today I went to NOVA’s Shinjuku head office for CAT training. CAT is NOVA’s level check system. I assume that CAT stands for something like “conversation ability test”, but with this company it could be anything.
NOVA divides students into different levels of ability, with 7 being the lowest level and 2 being the highest. There is no level 1 for some reason. Nobody really knows why, but the most common reason I have heard is that level 1 is equivalent to a native English speaker. Also, there are three divisions in level 7; 7C, 7B and 7A.
CAT is used when a new student joins NOVA, or when an existing student has been recommended for a level up. The training is used to make sure that level classification is consistent across different NOVA branches. During training we listen to examples of students of different abilities, and follow through the level assessment decision tree.
The system is actually pretty interesting. For a new student, you start with a brief conversation. Based on how they do, the next steps are some tasks using English and a situational role play. After the tasks and role play, the decision tree will tell the instructor which level the student belongs in.
My favourite role play situation is for level 5 – the student is on vacation and their luggage did not arrive. The instructor plays the airline staff. To successfully complete the situation, the student must inquire what happened to their luggage, when their luggage will arrive, and if the airline can do anything to help them in the meantime. I enjoy being the unhelpful airline employee.
There was a test at the end of training, which I think I might have failed. For some reason, every teacher from Kawasaki NOVA who has taken the test recently has failed. I am not sure if this says something about the training or my branch. (Probably the branch!!)
September 8, 2004 – No news
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on September 11, 2014
Still no word on my transfer.
September 7, 2004 – The early end of Twin Peaks night
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Lux on September 9, 2014
Yes problem friendly Giant. Yes Problem.
Lux and Zoe had some kind of big argument and aren’t talking to each other at the moment. Both of them are pretty strong minded so I’m not sure how long this will last.
I’m still getting along with both of them individually, but this has pretty much killed Twin Peaks night.
September 6, 2004 – Touring Noborito
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Hello House, Keikyu-Kawasaki NOVA, Lux on September 9, 2014
Another schedule update at work. This month I will be working Sundays at Keikyu Kawasaki NOVA. Sunday is one of the busiest days, so it’s fantastic to be at Keikyu which is more relaxing than Kawasaki NOVA.
After work, Archie came back to the Noborito area with me. I showed off Hello House and we went for beer with Lux. A good time was had by all!
September 5, 2004 – The insanity continues
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on September 9, 2014
The insane scheduling continues! At the end of the day I had to stay an extra 30 minutes to finish writing my files.
After each lesson, teachers are required to evaluate the student’s performance during the lesson. There are a few categories to rank (vocabulary, pronunciation, etc), and then a space for comments. Proper comments should include specific references to both strong and weak points during the lesson, and to provide suggestions on how to improve. Good comments help the next teacher, and also provide information to the students if they request to see their files.
Writing a proper evaluation and comments can take some time. Naturally, doing evaluations and comments for four students takes four times as long.
In the evening classes, there are 10 minutes between lessons. During busy months like September, it is likely for a teacher to have four students in every lesson. If you get out of your lesson a few minutes late, it doesn’t leave much time to squeeze into the overcrowded teachers room, write comments, give files to the next teacher or put them away, and locate your next lesson’s files and room number. That time gets smaller if you need to take a bathroom break. The easiest solution is to write up the student’s files after the last lesson of the day.
Recently with all of the full classes I have been regularly spending time after the last lesson finishing up my paperwork. It’s no fun, but it needs to get done.
September 4, 2004 – Too many Andrews from Canada
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on September 9, 2014
Once of the recent additions to Kawasaki NOVA is a teacher named Andrew from Canada. Unfortunately for him, I am already Andrew from Canada, and I have been around for almost a year now.
Teachers are usually referred to by their first names by students and staff. In the event that there are similar names, the country of origin comes into play. For example, a branch could have a British Steven and an Australian Steven. Having two Andrews from Canada is guaranteed to cause confusion.
I asked the secondary Andrew what his middle name was, and he said “Archibald”. I asked him if he was okay with people calling him “Archie”. He said yes.
He looked nothing like this
Before he could ask why, I quickly went to the front office and asked the Japanese staff to change other Andrew’s name to Archie in the schedule system. Apparently I now have some level of credibility, because they made the change without question and without confirming with any of the supervisors.
Once again, I am the only and original Andrew from Canada. Victory!
Drinking in Japan 
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