January 24, 2004 – 4 months in Japan
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on January 24, 2014
Nova Classrooms – a maze of glass boxes
As of today I have officially spent 4 months in Japan. I celebrated this momentous occasion by… working.
At work I managed to distract two other classes during a man-to-man kids class. “Man-to-man” is the term used when a student specifically requests a one on one class with the teacher, regardless of the gender or age of the student. A “lucky man-to” is the NOVA student term for when they book a group lesson but happen to be the only student to show up.
The first distraction was caused when I needed to go to the teacher’s room to get some teaching material that I forgot. NOVA classrooms are little glass boxes, so you can see what’s going on around you. A student from another class stopped listening to her teacher and watched me go all the way to the teacher’s room and back. It was a little strange.
The second distraction came when I was teaching using the “throw the paper ball at the flashcard” technique. The target language had phrases and pictures from a short story. I would read one of the cards, and the student would have to throw a paper ball at the card and knock it down. Then she would pick a card and read to me, and I would have to knock down the card. This sounds a bit dumb, but it involves both listening to English to identify the correct target card, and reading English to tell me which card to hit. Also, kids absolutely love this.
On one turn, the paper ball took a bad bounce and rolled under the wall into the next classroom. Without thinking about it too hard, I was down on the ground (in my shirt and tie) reaching under the wall into the next classroom to retrieve the lost paper ball. I had just closed my hand around the ball when one of the students noticed an arm grabbing around on the floor and screamed. I popped up and explained what happened, which cracked up the entire next classroom. I basically brought both classes to a complete stop, but everyone seemed to have a good laugh about it.
January 22, 2004 – Dozo table
Posted by Barniferous in Hello House, Life in Japan on January 22, 2014
The Hello House East common room
In Japanese the word dozo (also written as どうぞ or douzo) roughly means “here you go”. It is used for giving something to someone, showing them to their seat, informing them to start eating or drinking, etc. In the Hello House common room there is a table (just off the right side of this picture) known as the dozo table. Unwanted items can be put on the dozo table and then they are free for any of the residents. You can tell when people have been cleaning their rooms or are preparing to move out by the amount of stuff on the dozo table.
So far in my few months in Hello House I have collected a nightstand, frisbee, futon mattress, clipboard, picture frame, juggling balls, Japanese phrase book and a computer monitor. I love the dozo table!
(2014 update)
I still have the phrasebook to this day!
January 21, 2004 – Avoiding the teacher
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Movies, Teaching English on January 21, 2014
I had a student deliberately avoid one of my voice classes today, which was a bit of a blow to the ego. At the end of each class we have to ask the students if they have another lesson. This helps determine which files we need to get to another teacher. One of the students said no, she didn’t have another lesson, but she would be going into the Voice room for an open conversation class. I told her that I would be teaching Voice next, so that I would see here there.
During the 10 minute break between classes she went to the reception area and booked another classroom lesson so that she would not have to take my Voice class. Ouch!
After work I went back to Hello House and finally got to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. It was good, but could have probably been about 20 minutes shorter. I love movies, but living in Japan makes it difficult to keep up on the newest releases. Most movies take a few months to show up in Japan, and the DVD releases are similarly delayed. The result is that I can’t talk new movies with people from home. Oh well, a small price to pay for living in Japan.
January 20, 2004 – Well worth a pen
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on January 20, 2014
I had my first really good kids class today. I felt good about my teaching, and that the kid actually learned something. However she accidentally stole my pen at the end of the lesson. Hey, if a pen is the cost for a successful kids lesson, no problem!
January 18, 2004 – Walking around Yokohama
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on January 18, 2014
I met a language exchange partner in Yokohama today, let’s call her Aruko. We did a lot of walking around together. One of the highlights was the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery and accompanying museum. When Japan reopened the country to the outside world in the 1800s, Yokohama became the place where most of the foreigners settled. The cemetery houses some of the important foreign settlers from that time period.
After sightseeing and a lot of walking, Aruko and I went to Yurindo bookstore which has a large English section, though not as good as Kinokuniya. I bought the second volume of the Complete Sherlock Holmes collection. I also found an interesting book that teaches Japanese speakers how to talk dirty in English. Seriously, this book was explicit. No, I do not have examples, and no I didn’t buy it.
(2014 update)
I should have bought it 🙂
January 17, 2004 – Pandas speak Chinese, not English
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on January 17, 2014
Nova Usagi – the worst mascot ever
The picture above is of NOVA Usagi (NOVA rabbit), the horrible mascot of NOVA’s language school. It is supposed to resemble a pink rabbit with a bird beak. The idea behind it was that the rabbit ears represented listening well, and the bird beak represented talking well. To me it looks like a mutated Pokemon that needs to be destroyed with fire, but what do I know?
NOVA Usagi is well known all over Japan, and you can’t look in any direction at a NOVA school without seeing it’s stupid face. At work I was teaching Voice class (an open conversation room for students of all skill levels), when I was suddenly inspired with a good topic; finding a replacement for NOVA Usagi.
There were 5 talkative students in the Voice room, and I asked them to come up with ideas for a new mascot. Many animals were suggested, narrowed down, narrowed again, and we finally had a showdown between the two front runners; monkey and turtle. I then broke the class into teams and got them to come up with ideas to defend their animal. After a brief debate, Shelly the NOVA turtle won. It was one of the best Voice classes I have ever taught, and the students seemed to have fun too.
On a side note, I asked why nobody had suggested panda, and all 5 students (at the same time) shouted “PANDAS SPEAK CHINESE, NOT ENGLISH!!!” like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I guess that’s why I have trouble talking to pandas.
January 16, 2004 – Should have stayed in bed
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Life in Japan on January 16, 2014
Yesterday was a train wreck of a day. It started out when I couldn’t find my watch. I spend a long time looking for it in my room. How long? I don’t know because my watch was missing. I did find it eventually, but was almost late for work.
After work the plan was to meet Marshall at Kawasaki station and go to GasPanic Yokohama. I had planned ahead by bringing a change of clothes to work (didn’t want to go out in my suit) and getting directions from other teachers. The one thing I didn’t do was get cash, because there were numerous bank machines around Kawasaki station. Right after work I changed clothes and headed to the nearest bank machine. No luck. I quickly tried about 5 more bank machines in the area, also with no success. I contacted Marshall and he said he would cover me, so we met at the station to go to Yokohama.
The train from Kawasaki to Yokohama is usually busy, but this was the most crowded train I had ever seen that wasn’t going to or from Shibuya. Seriously, if everyone had breathed at the same time the doors would have popped out. From Yokohama we followed the directions I had been given and took a train to Takashima-cho station. It turns out that the directions I had been given were CRAP, and after about 30 minutes of wandering around we gave up and headed back to Yokohama.
Since we were already out, plan B was to go bowling at a nearby bowling alley. The problem was that the alley had no shoes to fit 193cm (6’4″) Marshall. Dejected, we decided that plan C was to return to Noborito and go to Avenue Izakaya for some cheap beer and octopus. Avenue was a safe bet because it was usually open until 5:00am every night. We took the 27 minute train ride from Kawasaki to Noborito, walked 5 minutes to Avenue to find that it was closed and dark. Last night was the one night it was ever known to be closed.
One of the great things about Japan is that beer is easily available in convenience stores. Coincidentally, there was a convenience store directly across the street from Avenue (plan D for those keeping track). We went in to find that the store was completely SOLD OUT of alcohol. Seriously, WTF? We ended up going to the 99 yen store to buy some some mystery beverages which may or may not have been alcoholic, and then returned to Hello House.
I don’t know what I did to upset the universe so badly, but I am hoping that this will all balance out at some point. I should have just stayed in bed.
(partial rewrite for formatting and detail)
January 12, 2004 – Coming of Age Day
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Tokyo on January 12, 2014
Shiodome City Center
Today was a National Holiday: Coming of Age Day. It is a holiday to celebrate all the people who became 20 years old in the past year. 20 is considered the age of majority in Japan. Since I had the day off, I went to Asakusa with Yumi and one of her friends.
Asakusa is home to Sensoji – a giant Buddhist temple. The approach to the temple is a 250 meter long shopping area called Nakamichi. This is a great place to buy souvenirs and touristy stuff. Due to the holiday, the temple area was completely packed with people in kimonos, so getting around was difficult.
After spending some time around Sensoji, we went to the Shiodome area near Shinbashi and Ginza. This area used to be occupied by a large train station. Expressways and changes to other nearby train stations made the original Shinbashi station unnecessary. Since real estate is at a premium in Tokyo, the large area of land occupied by the train station and yards was redeveloped into an area filled with skyscrapers. Shiodome has become on of Tokyo’s most modern city centres.
The three of us wandered around some of the tall buildings and then went to a restaurant called “Vietnam Frog” for dinner. The food was fantastic and they had an English menu.
As a conversational English teacher, I have to be fairly good at having a conversation. I usually pride myself on being able to talk to almost anyone and still be somewhat interesting. During dinner my brain shut down and I literally had nothing interesting to talk about. Seriously, nothing. I ended up discussing my job in English at great length for some reason. When I got home later I was thinking “why did I just end up talking about work the whole time?”.
It was a great day out – I got to see a historical side of Tokyo and one of the newest major developments as well. I just wish I would have been a little more interesting for my friends to listen to…
(full rewrite of original post which was only 4 sentences long)
January 11, 2004 – Revenge of Channel Kitano
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on January 11, 2014
Channel Kitano was on again, which is good because absolutely nobody believed me when I told them about it.
January 10, 2004 – Is Channel Kitano even legal?
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on January 10, 2014
After work I went for a few beverages at the nearby izakaya. When I got home I wasn’t quite tired enough to go to sleep, so I decided to watch some late night TV. After flipping through the channels, I came across a variety program called “Channel Kitano”. In the segment I watched there was a female reporter walking around Tokyo talking to women with large breasts. The reporter asked for permission to touch and then PROCEEDED TO GROPE THE RANDOM WOMAN’S CHEST! This is usually how porn starts!
Many of the women that were approached instantly said no, and some ran away when they saw the camera coming. A few brave souls returned to the studio for an interview after their initial groping. At the studio there was an in depth interview, apparently about having large breasts. The interview would usually involve the reporter continuing to grab the woman’s breasts while saying “sugoi”, which means “great” in Japanese.
Channel Kitano was, by far, the most unusual thing I have ever seen on TV. Considering that some of the girls were only 16, I don’t know how this would be legal in other countries. Wow.
Drinking in Japan 
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