My Story has a Dragon

My Story has a Dragon

I haven't done any real writing of my story yet, but I have planned it out a bit.  I think its going to be good as long as I can do justice to the writing.  It's going to be a morals story about free power and how not earning it can be destructive to yourself and the ones around you.  'Nough said about that.

Had an interesting week.  Observed a class I will be teaching in December.  Nice kids.  I think it will be good times.  I also taught at another branch  this week.  Two lessons were delivered, but only one was done well.  I blame the preparation for the bad first lesson.  I was told that I was teaching lesson six but in reality I was doing lesson five.  Good thing the Co-teacher came to work early and let me know or it could have gotten ugly in there.  The second lesson was probably one of the best lessons I've given since joining this company.  Right from the very beginning I had a strong connection with the students and they were very responsive in every way.  Considering the fact that I usually do a half-assed job at this level I was very pleasantly surprised with the out come.  I have to go back again this coming week and I am looking forward to it.  The other thing that came from this day was I got to see how another branch works.  Some things I liked and others not so much.  Happy to be where I am and I'm looking forward to not having to do these coverage lessons.  Starting in December I will have my full and regular schedule.  Should be a good thing.

I think this weekend has been the busiest weekend I've had since coming to Taiwan.  Saturday was "filled" with a training session at work.  I went to the gym in the morning and realized just how weak my legs have become over the past few years.  I guess I have been focusing on the upper body a bit too much.  Hopefully I will correct that over the next few weeks.  After training I was supposed to go and pick up some things from a friend who is leaving Taiwan next week.  That got canceled so I went shopping instead and found a blender on sale for half price that I have wanted for awhile now.  That made Saturday a good day. (oh how our level of expectation can change)  Sunday was not as busy but I still had things to do.  I was able to go pick up some dishes and cups from my friend and had a nice chat while doing that.  When I got back home I decided it was pizza day so I went to the grocery store and did some shopping for food for the week and picked up a Hawaiian pizza (oh so yummy!) while eating the pizza I was watching my Facebook feed and a guy put up a small sub and speaker set.  I've been looking for a decent deal on a speaker set almost since I moved in here.  I immediately arranged to purchase it.  Man, it is so much nicer with a little bottom end on the sound you are listening to.  

Hopefully I will get a start on writing my story this week.  I have to do some more training this week and teaching but I am determined more then ever to get this book started and completed in the coming year

Well, that's all for now.  Catch you on the down low.

Hsinchu Zoo

Hsinchu Zoo

I went out for a walk today hoping I would be able to find the Zoo that is on the other side of the train station.  As you can see I found it.  Having found it I feel a little like maybe I shouldn't have gone in.  This place seems to me to be a zoo that shouldn't exist.  For the most part I really like zoo's, though I do understand the opinion that they are cruel for animals.  When I go to one I get to see animals that I would be very unlikely to get to see in my lifetime (except maybe on TV).  This zoo is very small, it only took me an hour to slowly walk around, and the animals seem even less active then at other zoo's I've been to.  It smells bad and doesn't look very clean.  Thankfully there aren't many large animals here, mostly reptiles, birds and other small things.




On my way home I saw a road side stand selling
 song birds.  There were some really nice looking birds here and I was tempted to buy one but thankfully I don't have much money this month.  I don't know if I am capable of taking care of a bird.  I think they were all a little jealous of the birds that were flying around, coming to take a look at them.

If you come to Hsinchu there is a lot of shopping available.  There are at least 2 large malls and they have a free shuttle service from the train station to the mall.  This particular mall, Far Eastern Department store, has an interesting shuttle bus.

And as you can see there is lots of parking space for your scooter.  Or should I say there are a lot of scooters being parked.  There weren't many spaces left in this area and I don't know what was around here, except the train station, that would need so much space for scooters.

A slightly better look at the scooter parking lot

There was even a space for pedal bikes here but only for around 10 bikes.

The last few weeks have been fairly uneventful but still interesting.  I was sick for about two weeks.  It made things a little interesting but I managed.  I had an opportunity to cover for a guy who was working three mornings a week at an Elementary school.  Grade one's and four's.  Easy hours for me.  Took about five minutes to prep for the lessons and I taught the same lesson for all four classes.  Day one was interesting.  My first lesson lasted 15mins.  They are supposed to be 40mins long.  Apparently the kids had to go do some exercise so I got paid for an hour and only did 15mins.  WIN!!  The kids were great so I had a ton of fun.  The best thing that happened to me here was, at the end of one lesson, a girl came up to me and asked if I would come to the next lesson.  I guess she really liked my lesson.  Another girl from the same class said her sister had my English lesson the day before and said I was lots of fun.  Maybe I am a good teacher, I don't know but at least I know the kids like me.  It's things like this that make my job worth doing.

Last week I had a visitor.  My friend Maria came from Japan.  She stayed here while doing some day trips around northern Taiwan.  I think she had a nice time, even though the weather wasn't perfect.  It was cloudy and a little rainy all week until her second last day which was bright and sunny.  She took some really nice pictures, hopefully she won't mind me posting this one.  It was my favorite one.

Taipei 101 and Taipei city at dusk

Time is flying for me here like it has never flown before.  When I teach a class I feel like I taught them just a day or two before even though it was a week ago.  Weekends are flying by as well even though I am not doing much (lack of money being one of the reasons).  I think this year will go by very quickly.

  One of the reasons I decided to come to Taiwan was because the winters are very mild here and so far that is panning out.  Today's high is 20 degrees.  I am still wearing shorts and flip flop shoes.  This week was the first time I have worn a T-shirt when not at work.  I am hoping Christmas will be warm to.  I have a friend coming to visit then as well.  My money situation should be a bit better as I am getting full hours this month which means I should be able to get out  and see some things and show you more of Taiwan.

The last thing I want to say is that I am going to try and write a novel starting monday.  If you have any interest in reading it please send me an email and I will send you everything I have done on a weekly (or monthly) basis.  If you don't have my email address then comment on this blog or PM me on facebook and I will send you my email address.

Ta Ta for now.

Getting to know Hsinchu

Random Temple.  Don't know the name of.

So I finished my first full week of work at my new job.  My thoughts so far are that I should be able to do it without to much trouble.  Kids were tons of fun, even the older ones who didn't want to speak out much.  I think the older kids lessons are easier to teach as I am more of a facilitator then a teacher but the younger ones are more fun because they are still so keen to have fun.  I've been feeling some financial stress because this is probably the worst paying job I've had.  They expect a lot of donated time for marking tests and homework.  The prep time not being paid doesn't bother me to much.  I feel a little bad because, for the first month, it seems like I am taking classes from the Taiwanese teachers and they already don't get paid much, certainly less then the native English teachers.  Thursday was a day off in Taiwan.  I guess the 10/10 has meaning here.  A day of is a day off so I will take it even though I don't get paid for it.

The food has been pretty good to.  There is a Mexican take out restaurant right close to my apartment and I went there at least two times this week.  I found a Subway close to the train station so I can get my fix of mostly healthy western food.  Lots of Mcdonald's and Burger King's around as well as Mos Burger (a Japanese fast food chain like Mcd's).  I went to a small restaurant with my neighbor that served a soup type meal with meat and veggies.  It seemed like a Japanese dish (Nabe) but maybe its Taiwanese food.  I will need to branch out my eating because if you do it right here it's cheaper to eat out then it is to buy groceries and cook in.  I went to a really nice outdoor steak house on Friday night after work with some co-workers.  The beef was rare, I prefer medium well, but tasted good.  I got a steak that was extra large so I could take some home for a sandwich today.  It was even better as a sandwich with the cream cheese I had.  I got the cheese for dipping in the pizza crust.  Speaking of which, pizza is so cheap here.  I bought a 12" Hawaiian for around $6.  It was amazing.  I haven't had real Hawaiian pizza for years.  In Japan they cringe when you mention pineapple on pizza.  That's about all in the food area.

Saturday I took as a relaxing day.  I was feeling a bit down,  hopefully due to culture shock, so I wasn't interested in doing much besides watching TV.  Sunday I was a lot more motivated.  I started the day off by cleaning up a little and then I went out for a long walk.  I was hoping to find a few temples and other things like good, cheap restaurants to eat at and maybe places where there were things I could do.  Didn't find much of anything except shopping places.  A couple of large malls and a bunch of small shops.  I scoped out a few scooter shops so I know where to go when I have my license.

I managed to find 2 temples.  The picture at the top is the first place I found.  I really like the busy style of the construction.  Lots to look at inside and out.  Here's a picture of the other temple I found.

Really nice.  Very colorful. Felt like a relaxing place to contemplate life or whatever you feel like thinking about.

One of the things I like better about Taiwan then Japan is the random green spots they have scattered around the city.  Its like that in Taipei to so I imagine most of the cities have them.

There are benches to sit on under the trees.  I've seen lots of public places to sit in this country which is another thing I really like.  This park is a bit larger then the other ones I've seen.  Lots of older people gather in these areas to talk and relax.  It's really nice.

While I was walking around I totally got checked out by a girl.  She seemed to like what she saw.  Made me feel pretty good to be a piece of meat :)  Even the wildlife seemed to be into me.

This parrot whistled at me as I was passing by.  Must be having a good body day today.  Maybe the gym here is paying off.  I did go twice this past week.

Something crazy about Taiwan is that there are as many or more scooters on the road as cars.  They even have their own lanes in places.

The lower level is where the cars are racing through the underpass (train tracks above).  At every traffic light there is a place where they can wait for the light.  You are not allowed to turn left on the bigger roads so you cross the intersection and wait there for the light to turn green.  Keep in mind they drive on the same side of the road as in North America.

I could have gone to at least one other temple but I was feeling a little tired and I figured I should save some sights for the next weekend.  On the way past the train station there was some sort of dance festival going on in the area outside the station.

It's kinda hard to see them but they were pretty nice looking girls and they could dance passingly well.  Didn't look like a professional type thing, just some amateurs.  There were a lot of them lined up to take a turn.  

The weather has been amazing so far.  around thirty degrees everyday but because this city has wind its actually felt really nice.  Still wish I could wear shorts to work but hey, you can't have it all.  The temps that Taiwan has during the winter are one of the things that attracted me to coming here.  The people have been really nice and helpful and hopefully I can move past the culture shock quickly and settle into a nice easy routine.

Finished training and the first couple of days in my new city

This past week has been a pretty decent week.  A little stressful at the start with having an assessed demo to do during training.  That was on Monday.  Breezed through it with flying colors.  The rest of training was fairly easy.  Just had to sit through a couple more lectures and write a final test.  I think I got a couple wrong but that's OK.  Training was completed on Wednesday with a short graduation ceremony and a few awards given out.  Went to karaoke for the after party.  I really don't like karaoke but I figured I should go for awhile as it was the final time I would see most of the other trainee's for the foreseeable future.

Thursday was the trek out to my new city.  I am currently living in Hsinchu City, alternate spelling is Xinchu City.  After a 50min train ride I was met by a co-worker at the train station in Hsinchu city and she took me to the Area branch office to drop off my luggage.  I really don't like hauling that stuff around.  Next to the office is an Italian restaurant and since it was going to be an hour or so until the real estate agent could meet us we went for lunch.  Good eats.  My boss met us there and paid for it all.  I was surprised but happy.

Next we met the agent and she took us to a nice enough 3 bedroom apartment.  It was actually a very nice place, just a little out of my price range.  The next place was totally perfect for what I wanted.  2 bedroom, newly renovated.  It even had a dishwasher in the kitchen.  But, once again, it was out of my price range.  I think I could have swung it but it would have made saving money almost impossible until I could get a roommate.  It was supper quiet and not that far from work, only a 15-20min walk.  The next place was a studio apt on the 8th floor of another building.  I was expecting something along the lines of what I was living in in Japan.  Not even close!  Fully furnished with a double size bed and a flat screen TV.  Cable, Internet and water included in the rent for the low price of around $400.00CAD.  I was happy and took it. 

 Later when I was at the office signing the contract I was told that I had rented my apt faster then anyone else.  Not sure if this shows that I am decisive or just impatient.  

Not much of a view but the air flows through nicely

My co-worker then took me shopping so I could get some things for the apartment, like bedding, a pillow and cleaning supplies.  It is a newly renovated apt and I still need to clean but I am just to lazy to do it.

Day 2 consisted of my trying to find the Mexican restaurant that is near the offices, unfortunately I couldn't find it so I had to settle for some restaurant nearby.  It had a zebra drawing on the door.  The food was really good, though a bit expensive.  I showed up at the office way to early, I think I was around 2.5hrs early and all I was doing was observing 2 lessons.  Oh well, gotta try to make a good impression.  After watching others teach for 4hrs I am feeling pretty good about this job.  Hopefully I can perform as well as I expect myself to.  I found the Mexican restaurant on the way home so I stopped for supper.  The food there was very good to.

Saturday was a day off so I decided to do some laundry before heading out to see what is around my new home.  I couldn't get the stupid machine to start up.  I tried everything, pressing all the buttons in many different combinations.  Nothing worked.  I decided to give up for awhile.  On the way out I saw my neighbor and asked him for some help.  Stupid machine decided to work for him even though I did exactly what he did.  Not all technology likes me I guess.

I found a really nice gym in the mall near my place so I decided to join up. 

 It costs about $55.00CAD per month.  Not to bad, every commercial gym in Japan was around $100.00.  I did some walking around after signing up and found a KFC, Pizza Hut and a Mcdonalds not to far away. When I need a fix of western food I will be good here.  I think I have everything here to be very happy, now I just need to find a few friends and I will be good to go for a couple of years.

Life is good.  Now to start making some money.

The start of my life in Taiwan

Taipei 101

Well, I've made it half way through training for my new job.  So far, so good.  I have experienced the expected level of stress.  It hasn't been nearly as stressful as when I took the CELTA course but, as in all new jobs, you have some performance anxiety.  Or at least I do.

The trainers have been pretty decent so far.  The method of teaching is far more technical then anything I did in Japan.  Games everywhere though, so hopefully I can fit those into my lessons without to much trouble.  I had a pretty bad game when I was doing storybook time for one demo.  I'm not very inventive when it comes to thinking up games.  But the observer said it was all good (I think he was just being nice.)

Most of my fellow trainee's are pretty cool.  Its a group of 33 people from lots of different places. I've met more South Africans in the past week then I have ever seen in the past.  I guess Taiwan is a popular place to go from there.  Lots of UK people and many Auzzies.  A bunch of Americans and I think one or two other Canadians.  A pretty diverse group I would say.  I think it's a little funny that they don't recruit more from North American since that is the English that they are trying to teach.  Of the 4 or 5 trainers we have only one of them is from NA.

We had a Mandarin lesson at the end of training on Thursday.  I think I will struggle with it even more then I did with Japanese, but it was at least a fun lesson and the lady who taught the lesson was kinda hot.  Makes it a little difficult to pay attention to what she was saying.

I haven't done much sight seeing yet and I doubt I will be doing any before I leave for my placement.  The training is pretty intense.  I will be going to Hsinchu city next Thursday.  When I get there I will be going apartment hunting immediately.  This has been the biggest problem I've had with this company so far.  I have to shell out between $1000 and $1500 just to get a place to live.  They said nothing about that kind of cost in the lead up to coming.  It has put a bit of a damper on my excitement to be here.  Oh well, what large company is ever completely honest with their new recruits?

I have a pretty sweet schedule.  I will work Mon-Fri 4:30 to 9:00.  Only problem with this is I get paid hourly so it doesn't translate into much money.  I think I will be looking for private tutoring.  At least I will have lots of time to do it.

I am staying in a pretty run down hotel for this training and I have a roommate with me.  He's a pretty nice guy.  I think we have a lot in common so its been pretty easy living with him.  However the internet in this hotel is probably worse then dial-up ever was.  On many occasions we can't even connect so there is no checking FB or emails.  I did get a prepaid card for my cell phone.  The way I understood it was that it is unlimited internet and a bunch of minutes of calls.  Don't need the calls so I should be good to go with that.  Only problem is I don't even get cell phone reception in the room.  All I can say is, at least I don't have to pay for the hotel while I am in training.  I think I would have changed if I had to pay.  The best thing about this room is that there are 5 movie channels on the TV.

Well, that's enough for now.

Bye bye. (I would say it in Mandarin but I already forgot how.  doh)

Leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. See ya Japan

So, I made a decision to leave Japan many months ago.  It finally culminated in my leaving to try my luck in Taiwan.  I've heard many good things about Taiwan and almost none bad.  After applying to many companies and only getting a few returns, I scored a job with a national company that teaches children.  Kind of the same job as I was doing in Japan so hopefully there won't be the same amount of new job stress I suffered when I first came to Japan.  Here's to hoping.

After jumping through the usual hoops to get the confirmation of the job I was able to book my flight.  Yee Haw!!!  Get to finally leave the high stress environment of having a shitty boss and far to much commuting for my liking.  I booked with Peach.  It's a fairly new low cost carrier flying out of Kansai airport in Osaka.

Now, when you go to Taiwan you have to book a flight out of the country or they won't let you in.  So I booked a return flight at the end of October.  Made the mistake of booking 2 bags on the return flight and then found out not only could I not get my money back for the flight (I get peach points towards my next flight) I forfeit the baggage fees completely.  Not to impressed, but whatever.  While booking I got to choose where I want to sit.  So I choose a seat with extra foot space (not the emergency aisle though).  When I got to my seat I was happy about choosing the extra space because I couldn't imagine what the regular seat space gave you.  Here's a pic of what I had.

Not much space as you can see. 

Despite the lack of space it was an uneventful flight.  Because I choose the window seat I got to see the tops of the clouds.  They're pretty cool.

One easy landing later and I am on the ground in Taoyuan international airport.  Got off the plane and advanced to immigration.  The lady behind the booth who took my picture didn't seem to impressed that I was coming to teach English, but she let me pass with no trouble.  I am always nervous about customs and immigration for some reason.

After leaving this area I moved on to baggage claim.  Surprisingly enough my bags didn't take long to arrive and I was off to customs.  Man, I wish customs was like this in Canada.  Everyone just strolled through.  They didn't check any luggage.  Not mine, not anyone's.  Go figure!

The company that I have hired with said they would have a driver just outside customs and there he was.  With a little bit of bad English we were on our way.  Took about 45mins to get to the hotel.  

Here's where things get a little dicey.  This hotel is a dive.  Brings me back to when I was insulating attics and had to stay in motels in the middle of nowhere. 

Its a two room room.  Tomorrow there will be another future HESS employee staying with me.  I imagine we will be bunking together all through training.  The thing I really didn't like was that I had to pay for all the days leading up to training and the new guy would pay me for his half.  Nice way to start trouble.  Hopefully there won't be any problems.  I'll have to keep you posted.

That's what has happened so far on my newest odyssey.  Now I gotta go see if I can find an air freshener somewhere cuz this room smells bad.

Great and Interesting Week

WOW!!  This was an exceptional week.  Not much really happened but some truely amazing things are happening.  Working in this area of Japan for the past year has been one of the most trying experiences in my life.  My one up boss is a bully and and a very unreasonable person. Especially if you don't do exactly as he says or even hint at questioning him on anything.  It immediately becomes a case of you undermining his authority.  It's so bad that if someone told you about it you wouldn't really believe that the company would keep someone like that around.  Because of this person I have had to do things that I  hoped I would never have to do.  My fight, and several others, to get rid of this guy has finally seen a little success.  Word was announced at our staff meeting this week that a new person was going to join the supervisor staff.  The understanding is that the old one is on his way out in the near future.  Can't be soon enough for most of us teaching in this area. That deserves a smiley face :)

On the teaching front something really weird happened at a classroom I was covering at.  I had a class of 3 and 4 year olds.  One boy took a look at me and started crying.  This isn't all that exceptional though usually I can get them to stop calling for their mothers within 5-10mins.  I couldn't with this one. His crying triggered another student to start crying, also not that exceptional.  What was exceptional, and even strange, was that while they were crying I was trying to get them to stop by making strange sounds and speaking Japanese to them. Another student came up behind me and started banging on my shoulders with a block.  I said "itai" which means ouch in Japanese and both these crying kids started laughing.  The weird thing is that they didn't stop crying.  They were  crying and laughing at the same time.  I didn't even know this was possible.  I don't mean they were laughing with crying tears in their eyes, they were crying whaaa whaa and laughing ha ha all at the same time.  It looked and sounded so strange that I started laughing which made them stop laughing and just cry.  So I started saying "itai" and they started laugh/crying again.  It was so strange.  Anyways, they didn't really stop crying for the whole hour.  Makes for a stressful lesson.  I think I might get the Japanese teacher to come next month, because i am sure I will be there again.

Rainy season started this week.  Somehow the Japanese know exactly which day weather patterns will take effect.  Well in advance usually.  They can tell you almost a month in advance when the cherry blossom trees will bloom.  It's amazing.  Not like the weather forecasters at home where they can't even tell you what the weather will be like that day.  I love rainy season.  Even though rainy season here amounts to maybe a day of rain per week here.  Rain is my favorite weather.  Totally relaxing for me.

My plans for the weekend are going to watch the new Tom Cruise movie Oblivion.  Might not be new to the folks back in Canada but it opens in Japan today.  Can't wait.  Looks like it could be a good summer of Sci-fi movies.  Next month Wil Smith's After Earth opens.  Might even have a different name in North America.  I think there are a couple more coming out this summer.

Well that's enough for now.  Enjoy your weekend.

May 19-25

Made it through another week.  This one wasn't as tiring but still fairly long.  I had to cover at another classroom for my buddy who was on vacation for a couple days.  He prepared me for a very chalenging day which didn't really happen.  Most of the kids were quite well behaved.  Having said that though, I think it was just because I am a freak of nature that they had never seen before.  I am at least twice as big as their regular Native teacher and I have a very different style of teaching, especially when I am at a classroom I won't be in again in the near future.  All the kids were completely fascinated by me so they spent the whole lesson staring at me and asking me questions, which I of course couldn't answer, not speaking the language and all.  We all had fun so it was all good.

At my school I had to teach my least favorite kid in all my schools.  I detest this child and he is only about 9 years old.  He thinks I'm an idiot because I don't speak Japanese and I despise him because her is the laziest, most spoiled child I have ever encountered.  He completely disrupts my lesson by talking to the other boys and saying rude things about me.  I might not know what he is saying but I understand that he is being a little S**T!  I think next month I might make him go sit in the corner if he acts up.

Later in the week I had to go to a private high school to assist with a couple of lessons and give a 30min presentation.  The first class was on the 3rd floor and as we (the home room teacher and I) opened the door to the hallway I thought there was a fight because someone hit the wall across from the door.  Turns out it was just a guy throwing his girlfriend against the wall and taking a kiss.  I assume she was his girlfriend because she didn't seem to mind the activity.  I think the Japanese teacher said something to them but not really sure.  Next thing we went into the classroom to do the communication lesson.  My job here is to stand around until such time as the regular teacher needs me to speak lines for the students to repeat.  I think I delivered in the neighborhood of 8 lines of text.  Not the most difficult of jobs.

Off to the next lesson which turned out to not be  a lesson at all.  This is the class where I had to give my 30min presentation. The name of the class is Dream Craft, not sure why.  Now I was feeling a little nervous because I had only found out the day before that it was supposed to be 30mins long.  I originally thought it was going to be a 5min spiel about my life.  I had about an hour of prep time the night before to make a slide show and print off a few picutres of my travels and prepare a monologue.  If the reaction of the teachers was any indication it went pretty well.  The students seemed very interested in what I had to say even though they were to shy to ask me any questions after but thats ok too.

for the final lesson we had to deal with the 3rd graders (or 12th graders for the North Americans).  This private high school is where the kids who couldn't get into a regular school go so you can imagine what kind of students are in here.  It's amazing the difference between the 1st and 3rd grades.  By the 3rd grade they are all on their cell phones and refuse to listen to the teacher.  2 got kicked out of the classroom and one student had a pretty serious stare down with the Japanese teacher.  I was impressed with how she dealt with him cuz I would have slapped him upside the head and kicked his butt out.

Not much else happened this week.  The weather has been very hot.  High 20's and even a couple of 30 degree days.  Summer is here and it looks a little like rainy season might start next week.  I like rainy season because it's not really a rainy season as far as I'm concerned.  One or two days of rain a week isn't a rainy season in my books.

Anywho, enjoy your week and I will be back with more next Friday or Saturday.

May 13th week in review

I started the week off with a day of doing laundry and tidying up my apartment.  Monday was easy.  Tueseday wasn`t to difficult either.  Just watched some TV and had an office day for work.  Wednesday was altogether a different story.  I had to go to a classroom that is half way between Okayama and Tsuyama.  Problem is I have to go almost all the way to Okayama (1.5hr train ride) before taking a bus back towards Tsuyama.  Not really a big problem all by itself, just a lot of traveling.

While I was waiting at the train station to board my train to Okayama a police officer rode up on his Cub Cadet scooter.  Apparently I was having a good Japanese day because I could understand most of what he said to me.  He asked me a few questions which I was mostly able to answer.  I often wonder if I am answering what they asked or they are just being nice and accepting my nonsense and acting like that is what they asked.  The Japanese can be real polite like that.  So after realizing my Japanese isn`t so good he proceeds to ask me if I have a girlfriend!  Unusually personal question coming from a person I don:t know, and if you know Japanese they tend to avoid really personal questions even when they do know you.  At this point he broke out his English because I don`t know what girlfriend is in Japanese   Once I understood what he was asking I told him no.  Now he speaks a lot more Japanese here, of which I`m not totally sure what he is saying.  The bits and pieces I am able to pick up lead me to believe he is telling me to get a girlfriend, I will learn the language really fast that way.  Now we are both laughing and he decides its time to move on and find someone else to talk to.  A nice interesting way to start the day.

Around 2hrs later I am at my classroom preparing my lessons for the day.  This is not my regular school but I have been here often enough that all the kids know me and are very comfortable with me.  Having said that, the first couple times I taught at this school I taught as though I wouldn`t likely be back or at least not for a long time.  When I cover at a school I usually teach a really fun and energetic lesson not worrying about how much the kids learn so much as giving them a really fun hour with the foreigner.  Classroom discipline tends to go out the window in these lessons. Turns out I have been there almost as much as the regular teacher at that school.  Now when I am there the kids are really excited to see me, which is great, but they tend to think its just playtime with Jason sensei.  This can be very frustrating when you actually want to deliver a quality lesson.  Imagine 2 days of classes where most if not all the kids think this way.  Add to that fact I don:t get home till 1am and it makes for a very tiring 2 days.  Good thing I don`t have to do this every day.

On the way home from Thursdays lessons I am sitting on the train waiting to leave the station and this guy walks on.  He`s bent over much like the really old granny`s(obasans) often are.  I figure he has the same spinal problem that the "obasans" have.  Turns out he is just really drunk.  I always get a kick out of watching drunk people on the train when they are tired.  Usually they tend to lean to the side when they start to fall asleep but this guy, due to his bent forward position, starts falling forward.  It`s kind of funny to watch because as his torso becomes horizontal his butt lifts off the seat and just as he is about to lunge forward and fall to the floor he wakes up just enough to pull himself back.  Every time he does this he moves closer to the guy beside him.  That guy is starting to look really uncomfortable but he is to nice to get up and move somewhere else, that would just be rude.  Finally the drunk guy falls asleep and this time he makes it all the way to the floor.  I think his face was the first thing to touch the floor.  I`m kind of laughing inside now.  It takes the guy a few seconds to realize he has fallen before he slowly drags himself back onto the seat.

Public transportation can be a form of cheap entertainment I just wish I didn`t have to ride it so long or so often.

That`s about all that happened to me this week.  I hope your week was as good or better then mine was.

P.S.  I would like to thank everyone who gave me feedback on my first blog.  any constructive criticism is welcome.  thanks

First time for everything

So I've decided to give this blogging thing a try.  Don't know that I have much to say but I'm gonna say it anyway. lol.  But first just a little bit about me.

I am currently living in Japan.  I have lived here for 7 of the last 8 years of my life.  Life's pretty good as an English teacher to children.  When I came here I didn't have any experience with kids (you could even say I didn't really like them.  All that screaming in public places and all.).  Now I have more then I would have thought possible.  Only problem is I don't speak Japanese so when I have a conversation with a child it is very one sided.  lol.  I just nod my head and act like I understand.  There is many times when I feel that is all a kid wants, is to be heard.

I've done a little bit of traveling around Asia and other parts of the world, but when I came to Japan that was the first time I had lived anywhere outside of Canada.  Much like I was in Canada, I have moved around a lot in Japan.  I have lived in 5 different parts of the country (most of which I have enjoyed).  I've had friends come visit me and my parents as well.  I have visited several parts of Japan as well and felt like I did a good job showing them around.

I am hoping to use this blog as a place to air my thoughts and talk about things that are going on in my life right now.

What's on my mind right now, you ask?  To be honest, not much at all.  Just enjoying the warm weather. I was in Kyoto a couple of weeks ago.  Had a really nice 3 days with my friends Nikki and Logan.

Logan and Nikki

  I took A LOT of pictures.  Even though I had been to Kyoto 3 or 4 times before the only thing I had seen before was Kinkakuji temple, which is always worth seeing again.  I have to say that Toji temple gardens was my favorite place on this trip and maybe even my favorite place in Kyoto.

Toji Temple gardens

Went to Inari temple after and then had dinner at an okonomiyaki joint that was pretty good.

Inari Temple

Day 2 was off to Kinkakuji temple and then the "Path of Bamboo" and Tenryuji temple.  Another nice garden temple.

Kinkakuji Temple

Path of Bamboo

As you can see these are some beautiful places in Kyoto.  I would advise anyone going to Japan to make a stop in Kyoto.  I think you could easily spend a whole week there sight-seeing everyday till you are totally exhausted and you will still not see everything.  But everything you see will be worth the memories.  I know they have been for me.