Journal 2 - I swear the crows here are cawing in Japanese .... it's very weird!!!!

I swear the crows here are cawing in Japanese .... it's very weird!!!!

Anyway, hi all, how's everyone doing?
Well, I survived my first week in Japan, in Yaizu and teaching. I think I'm going to like it. I have students of all ages from 3 to 50+. All of them are very nice and are a lot of fun. They're also all very receptive which is a bonus. I even have 1 boy who's about 14 who wrote an english speech about Drumheller ... the reason being is he just took a trip out there in the summer with his mom to see the dinosaur museum. He absolutely loves everything about dinosaurs, so his dream was to come to the Dinosaur museum in Drumheller. After his trip he wrote this speech and ended up winning in a semi-finals competition. Now he's going to the finals in October. So, he asked me to listen to his speech ... I was very impressed with his writing.

So, now that I'm finally settled in, I can actually get on with things like exploring, maybe see where the heck I live and what's around here. I still have yet to see Mt. Fuiji which apparently you can see plane as day from here ... yeah, if it wasn't so cloudy all the time. I will see it, oh yes I will. I had a bit of a bad cultural experience today ... I went to a city called Homamatsu and when I bought my train ticket, I got short changed without realizing it. The machines take any size bill and all I had was a 5000 yen (the train trip was 1200) ... I was suppose to get all the change back, but I guess I didn't and didn't realize it until I got on the train. Of course, if I was able to read Japanese, I would've figured it out. So, basically I lost out on 2000 yen, that's over $20 ... crap!!!! Oh well, I should just jot it down as a learning experience. First step for Joe? Learn the language. The really expensive city of Hamamatsu was very beautiful ... They have the most incredible park with a traditional Japanese castle. It's quite amazing. I spent a couple hours there, just enjoying the scenery and then I walked around the city ... I had to laugh because I saw a Toys R Us ... of course, I went in. The giraffes a little ... different .... doesn't quite look the same (maybe it was the Japanese eyes). I am happy to say though, Japan has Starbucks ... woohoo!!! In fact they're everywhere, so every once in a while I go in for my Tazo Chai.
Last night I met up with a guy from Canada who actually turned out to be the previous english teacher at the school I'm at. Actually, there were 2 other people after him ... 1 girl who quit after 2 weeks and then the substitute who ended up taking her place for a few months. Anyway, he quit GEOS because he wanted to travel around for a while. But, his central spot is here in Yaizu, which is kind of interesting. So, anyway I asked him where there's a good place to get a beer ... he took me to this hole in the wall pub. I was a little scepticle, but the owner was very nice and loved talking to everyone ... and you'll never guess what I had, Labatts Blue. In Canada, I hate the stuff ... But, here, it actually tasted pretty good. Maybe it was just the fact that I had something Canadian. All in all it was fun night ... this guy kind of gave me the heads up on what to expect throughout my year at GEOS and basically said to go with the flow and enjoy yourself. That's exactly what I'm going to do. If the students like me, but GEOS doesn't ... oh well!!!!

Anyway, I better get going; I don't want to keep sending long winded emails. I hope all is well with everyone. Thank you for those who sent me emails ... I am still trying to reply to all of you, but it's a little hard at an internet cafe. Once I actually get my connection at home, it'll be easier. I'm not sure when that'll happen mind you, or even when I will get my phone. I have to apply for one of those immigration cards (which I will do tomorrow). I can't get anything set up until I get that card which will take about 2 weeks to process. So, until then I'm kind of in limbo right now. I will be sure to let all of you know when everything is setup.

Take care all and I'll talk to you later,
Joe

Journal 1 - FINALLY MADE IT

Hello All,

So, I finally made it to Japan. I am sitting in this closed off booth on a leather chair with my feet propped up, typing this email to all of you. Am I in my apartment? Nope!!! This would be the internet cafe ... pretty weird. So, where ‚s‚ start. After leaving Calgary on the 12th, I ‚†‚Œ‚…‚— to Vancouver where I trained for the week. I stayed in a huge house which kind of reminded me of a frat house. There were 14 other people staying there as well. Everyone was pretty much going through the same emotions as I was ... fear, excitement, anxious. It was actually nice not being the only one. I won't give the details on the week, but basically what we did was get trained on the teaching curriculum and also taught 2 classes of our own to actual Japanese students. Mine went alright (the second one was better then the first). But, I think for first time teaching I did pretty well. Everyone else felt the same way. The traing was done on Thursday and we flew out Friday. I flew with 4 other people, so at least I wasn't alone. After a very long 10.5 hour flight, we arrived in Nagoya. It's Sunday ‚‚†‚”‚…‚’‚Ž‚‚‚Ž right now and I left on Friday, wow I lost an entire day.

So, what was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this place? WOW!!! I am in a completely different country on the other side of the world . It's really cool!! There are some things here that are very much the same: The cars, department store, there's malls. But, if you add a lot more bright lights, electronic billboards, live advertsing screens, then you have Japan. Has anyone seen Back to the Future where he actually went to the future? Well, it's not far off (except for the giant Jaws coming out to eat him, I have yet to see that). I did't get a chance to see a lot last night, because I was pretty jet lagged, but I saw a bit and I even managed to take the train by myself ... It was only 1 stop and I got lost in the station, but technicallities ... I have to take baby steps. Oh by the way, Ihaven't actually made it to my city yet. I've been staying in a hotel and not leaving tomorrow for my city. Yaizu is about an hour south east of Nagoya. I heard it's very nice and it is along the water. I'll have to admit, Nagoya's not the greatest looking city, but I was told that before I arrived here. It's very plane looking compared to the other places. I am very anxious to get to my city and see my apartment. I saw a friend of mine's who is living here and, yeah they're pretty small, but I was told that mine might be a little bigger because I am going to a smaller city ... I will let you know.

OK, so this keyboard is driving me nuts, I need to get used to it. But, Iam going to close here. For those of you who were able to make it to my final party, thank you so much for a great night. For the others, I am sorry I was not able to see all of you, but I will keep in touch via email For everyone, it is much easier to include you in a generic email (and cheaper), but if you would like to send me personal emails, I will try very hard to get back to you. I will be getting my own connection, but it probably won't happen for a month or so.

Anyway, this is where I say sayonara and I will email more again later. Take care everyone.

Love Joe

P.S. Almost forgot my mailing address. This will be effective Tuesday, September 21.

Joe White
Leo Palace Yaizu II 202
1-8-25
Yaizu city
Shizuoka
Japan