Two's Company, Five's A Crowd

Over the past few days, we got a chance to work with our first Japanese high school students. About 60-70 students from Oita Higashi High School signed up for a summer seminar to improve their English skills and we were invited to help. It was held at the Marine Culture Center in Kamae, in the southern part of Oita Prefecture. It was really a beautiful place, complete with palm trees and a great little bay.



The ALTs (that’s what we are...Assistant Language Teachers) were split up into groups of two or three and given a group of about 10 Japanese students to work with for the duration of the camp. Tori and I were paired with a returning ALT named Justin. It was fun...I don’t really feel like I have a whole lot to say about the seminar, but I had a good time. It was good to work with some students...get sort of a feel for what we’ll be doing. But, more importantly, it was a great opportunity to bond with some of the other ALTs that we’ll be working with in the future. We were put up in bunks with 5 or 6 ALTs per room...and we had a couple of little parties to get to know each other. Phil was along for the camp as well, and I got to know a couple of his friends that he likes to talk about...and we met a few newbies, too. It’s really been cool getting to know people from other countries. We’ve got Angelo from Portugal, Tamara from Scotland, Sheena from India, Piotr (or Poitr or Potior or something...but pronounced Peter) from New Zealand, and Will from England. It’s interesting that we’re in Japan to work with Japanese people...but we get to know people from all over the world.



Yesterday morning, a typhoon rolled in and kicked us out of the Marine Center early in the day. All of the leaders were making a big fuss about it...like we were all going to die on account of a little bit of rain and a slight breeze...and the trains were shutting down for fear of being derailed. It’s becoming quite apparent that the Japanese are a fairly cautious people. I probably only say this, though, because I haven’t yet seen a powerful typhoon. I like to think that they’re usually a bit more severe than this. That, and we don’t have a TV or Internet or anything, so we’re not really connected to the news. 1,000 people could have died in a neighboring town from the typhoon and we’d never even know. it’s actually getting a bit irritating. Hopefully we’ll be connected soon.

Phil had stayed at our place on Tuesday night before the seminar and wanted to spend some more time in Oita last night, so we gave him a spot on our floor again. Naoko was also coming in to Oita to visit us all (and her friend Kelsey), so we gave her a spot on the floor, too. On top of that...due to the typhoon, Will was stranded in Oita for the night. So, we offered him a place to stay. Five people in our little, tiny apartment. It was actually a lot of fun.
Before Naoko got to Oita, we went into town to do a little bit of shopping and get some dinner. We met up with Christina (from Tennessee) and Rachel (from New Zealand) and went to a little restaurant in the middle of downtown Oita. It was really good food...and not a bad price either. For the people who were drinking beer, the whole meal cost about $25 a piece, and for Tori and I...it only ended up being about $12 each. Tom (from the U.K.) showed up after a while and joined us, too.

Naoko got into Oita at around 10:00 and we went to the station to pick her up. It was good to have her and Phil back together in the same place at the same time. It’s been a while since I’ve hung out with the two of them. After nabbing some McDonalds for her, we headed out to a karaoke place and hung out for about an hour and a half. I can see why karaoke is more popular here than it is in the U.S. In the U.S. karaoke is really intimidating...it’s just one person up on a big, empty stage with the lights shining on them. But here, you rent out a little, private room with couches and a table...and you all just sit around and sing together. Of course there are microphones, but the people who are using them aren’t really highlighted...they just happen to be holding the mic. You can also borrow tambourines for those songs you don’t know, so everyone can always be involved. It’s actually really cool...and their catalogues are absolutely enormous. Pretty much any karaoke-worthy song is there...and in English.

After we finished there, we nabbed a couple of taxis and headed back to Tsurusaki. The last trains leaves Oita at 11:00 and we didn’t finish karaoke until about 12:15. Tom had assured us that it wouldn’t cost any more that about 1250 yen for the taxi back, but...he lied! It ended up being 2880 yen (as opposed to the 220 yen per person we pay for the train). So, yeah...we kind of decided last night that any time we come to Oita...unless it’s a REALLY special occasion...we’re leaving by 11:00. It was a good experience to take a taxi, though. Tori, Will, and I were in one cab, and I did most of the talking to the driver. It kind of amazes me sometimes how much Japanese I can actually speak. When I’m around someone who speaks fairly fluently...I just let them do the talking. But when there’s no crutch to lean on, I feel like I can actually get around fairly well. I’m entirely impressed with how much Tori can speak, too. She hasn’t studied much Japanese, but I feel like I could drop her in the middle of nowhere and somehow she’d still get by just fine. I’d never do that, of course, but...it’s good to know that if I had to, she’d be alright.

On an unrelated note...I feel like I’m getting homesick every once in a while. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are SO DAMNED UNCONNECTED. It will be nice to get our cell phones next week...and the Internet in early September. Hopefully that will help.

Until next time...