IrishOboe

I guess it wasn’t a very exciting past two days, but I’m posting now because it might be another few days before I can post again.  I have a very busy weekend, but it’s filled with fun so it should be good.  Oh, but I nearly forgot!  I had my first adventure with missing a train . . .

On Thursday (18^th) Kasia and I left with plenty of time to catch the train so I was surprised that it arrived just as we hit the platform.  It should have been my clue, but I started chatting with Kasia and Josh and it wasn’t until Josh said “Why are we still sitting in Kofu?” that we realized that the train we were on wasn’t going on to Sakaori (where the seminar is) but it was going back the way we had come!  I was sure my train schedule said it went all the way through, but we soon determined (after getting off the train in time, thank goodness) that we had caught the train that came 8min before the one we wanted and while we sat in Kofu the other train had passed us by and the next train would make us late.  Why they have two trains 8min apart and then no train for 30min is beyond me.  In any case, we decided to be responsible and take a cab instead of being late.  It only worked out to be 500 ($5) per person, so happily it was only a mild adventure.

In the morning we had mini-debates at the seminar.  For some crazy reason that is beyond me, my partner wanted to debate the war in Iraq.  He was a Canadian and wanted to hear perspective from an American.  Of course, he was against the war so I had to defend it . . .  I told him I didn’t know much about the war and that I didn’t want the topic to cause any tension or result in lost tempers, but he still really wanted to pick it, so I agreed.  I’ll have you note that the other teams chose the topics “Which is better, dogs or cats?” and “Which is better, winter or summer?”  Lucky me.  It was actually very interesting to speak to the JTEs about the war.  The plan for the debate was for each ALT to discuss points with two JTEs and prepare an argument, then the ALTs would debate to provide the JTEs with a model before they had their turn (and they got to pick another topic and debate as a panel).  From what I gathered, Japan is politically in support of Bush, but many people are not in support of the war.  I guess that’s not much of a surprise.  I didn’t know that Japan had people (not soldiers but something like it) in Iraq working on the reconstruction.  Anyway, the debate actually went pretty well.  I was able to keep my cool and both of us did a pretty good job of listening to the others’ points and responding in turn.  The JTEs were very impressed.  Their only complaint was that as the debate went on we started to talk too quickly.  I knew that would probably happen since as with any discussion I tend to get excited or intense and start talking faster and with more animation.  I’m quite comfortable arguing one side of things if I have to, so even with my doubts and very small knowledge of the war I was surprised at how persuasive I was.  I did have to explain about playing Devil’s advocate because one of the JTEs commented that we didn’t talk about the horrors of war and I realized that he thought my passion in the debate represented equal passion for the war.  I think he understood, but I do have to be careful!  It was actually a good experience since I’m always avoiding political conflict, especially in public or with important people (my supervisor was in my group!).

I had lunch with my supervisor, which was nice, and the rest of the day’s seminar was not very exciting.  Afterwards, Kasia and I went into Kofu and shopped at the 100 yen store, which was actually a very nice store.  We brought all our goodies to the yakitory place since I had to share the love of incredible food . . .

During dinner a family started talking to us and their 4 year-old daughter was trying to try her English on us.  She was very cute and very shy, but the English she spoke was very good.  We couldn’t speak much with the family because they didn’t know much more English than we knew Japanese, but it was fun to try anyway.  Inspired, I learned a few more Japanese phrases from Kasia.  I’ve been there three weeks and I know less than half of the Italian I learned in that time!!!!!

Today (Friday) was the last day of the seminar.  I’m happy to be done with it but I was sad to say goodbye to all the JTEs in my group who I will probably never see again.  One activity we did was very, very helpful.  The JTEs really opened up about what they want in an ALT and talked about common problems.  It was very nice to hear this from the JTEs themselves rather than from other ALTs.  I’ve been hearing the opinions of JETs for months now, so it was nice to get some info from the horses mouth.  My supervisor also said a good deal of things, which was very nice for me.  At break she asked again if she was scaring me (referring to her discussion of our school) and I told her the discussion had actually made me more excited.  I told her that she couldn’t scare me but then I thought again and (referring to another discussion) I said the only way she could scare me was to say I had to sit at my desk all day and do nothing.

I got home around 5pm and got to work on cleaning up.  I did laundry, scrubbed my bathroom and made great progress on my kitchen.  There was a lot of gunk and grime and I think I’ll just buy new pans and Tupperware rather than trying to clean some of it up.  The great thing about being here only one year is that I can buy the cheep items knowing that it won’t matter if they don’t last!

The last thought I’ll leave you with before going to bed is a simple observation.  I had thought that Fuji was only visible during the day because it’s not a Christmas tree or office building and wouldn’t be lit up at night, but tonight I could clearly see its dark outline against the night sky.  In fact, I could see the edge of all the mountains against the light polluted sky beyond.  Is light pollution really the reason why I can see the dark forms of the mountains?  I could also see a series of flickering lights on the North side of Mt. Fuji.  It was actually quite a site to behold, especially with the nearly full moon overhead.  Might that have something to do with it?

So on that note, goodnight, or good morning.  I’m ending the day you’re just beginning . . .