Part II of my first 8 months here.
I'll start this post with our move down to our current flat in Kawasaki. Since our moving experiences in London had all been painstakingly lengthy searching process, we started looking for a flat in Kawasaki about a month before our planned move but as it turned out, we found a perfect flat almost immediately and then had to negotiate to delay the move itself. Given that Lucy's Japanese is near-fluent, she did most of the negotiating and dealing with the paperwork. It all happened very quickly and we arranged to move in mid-March (16th). Located in Oshima-itchoume, only a twenty minute walk away from both Kawasaki station and Ishido sensei's dojo (道場, "training hall") and with numerous konbinis and a decent supermarket within easy walking distance, the location is perfect. Inside, it's what's known as a "one room apartment," meaning that bedroom and living room are all one room with only a thin partition separating it from the kitchen.
We'd already decided to rent a van to move everything and I investigated a couple of rental companies. One of the advantages of having passed my driving test in the UK is that I was able to obtain a Japanese driving licence without having to take the test (other than a short eye test) but even though I presented a Japanese driving licence, the first company I looked into (Nippon Rent-a-car) threw a bit of a wobbly and were reluctant to give me any straight answers; Toyota Rent-a-car, on the other hand, was incredibly easy and straightforward. We initially planned to move everything and raid Ikea for furniture before taking the van back in the evening but things didn't quite go as planned. As it stood, we had to take it back the following morning and we were both so knackered that we could barely be bothered to put the bed togetther before conking out on it. After the first three days of living there, we'd finally put everything together and registered at the Kawasaki Ward Office as residents of Kawasaki Ward, the central part of Kawasaki City.
Shortly before moving, I'd also managed to find a new job working as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in a junior high school, teaching kids aged 12-15. Working for an eikaiwa had its good sides: I could choose my working schedule; I could take a day off whenever I felt like it; I met some fantastic people, both coworkers and students; the atmosphere was relatively relaxed. The main issue was with the salary, as is sadly so often the case: I was being paid Y1,500/lesson (while the "clients" were paying around Y7,000) but if I didn't get any students, I wouldn't get paid, even if I spent the whole day there. There were some days when I started work at 10am and didn't get any students until about 5pm. Of course, I could work evenings but the whole reason I left event catering was that I wanted my evenings back so I started looking around and found a job with a company that provides ALTs to schools from elementary school to high school. I was lucky enough to be sent to schools in Kawasaki, only 50mins' commute away but, while both schools are public junior high schools, they are quite distinct.
The school I started in is slightly further away from home than the other and I started at the same time as three other new teachers (PE; Japanese; home economics) and we each had to introduce ourselves at Monday's assembly in front of some 500 kids; I was told, however, to speak only English, which made the whole thing much easier. We were also introduced by the headmaster to the rest of the teaching staff so I didn't have to speak a word of Japanese. The second school I went to was a rather interesting experience. I walked in the gate (the main school building was on my right with the playground on my left), while groups of half a dozen or so kids were practicing their baseball skills but I didn't really pay them any mind. After a few seconds, I noticed that there were repeated shouts of "Ohayou gozaimasu" (おはようございます, "good morning") and as I looked, I realised that, as I was walking past, each group would stop, face me, take their baseball caps off and bow as they greeted me. Unsure of the correct response, I nodded and replied with the same greeting. I then met the headmaster, had a chat with him and introduced myself (in Japanese) to the other teachers. The main difference in these schools, I felt, was that the latter was much more friendly than the latter: we had a nomikai (飲み会, lit. "drinking party"), at which all the new teachers had to give a short speech and I got to know everyone very well; all the staff are much more likely to stop and have a chat than in the first school; I was invited to the sports day.
As for teaching itself, I always knew working with kids is immensely challenging and I have a huge amount of respect for those who make it their career. The first-grade kids are fantastic and a pleasure to teach; I guess they're also closer to that stage of childhood where they'll be entertained with a cardboard box which, if you add it to their energy and friendliness, makes for a very entertaining experience. The second- and third-graders are more of a challenge as some of them are getting illusions that they're "too cool for school" but at least the second-graders are warming to me. We'll see how long the third-graders take...
Over the past coupld of months of teaching, one of the reactions I get almost daily from the kids is an expression of surprise that I have blue eyes (they don't seem so interested in my height as some of the kids are taller than me). At the moment, this still amuses me but I'm sure there will come a point when it'll be as annoying as being complimented on my use of chopsticks or the assumption that I can't write kanji (漢字; lit. "Chinese characters" used in Japanese and adopted in the 5th century of Han-dynasty China).
Life since then has consisted mostly of tackling my new job and getting to know the are we now live in. We visited Kawasaki Daishi (川崎大師), a large temple officially known as Heiken-ji (平間寺) serving as the headquarters for the Chizan sect (智山派) of Shingon Buddhism (真言宗) and had a proper nosey around the station for good, cheap restaurants and bars. We also made good use of the Kawasaki branch of Genki Sushi, a kaitenzushi (回転寿司, conveyor-belt sushi restaurant) place. The weather has also got much warmer and the temperature stays nicely in the mid-twenties. Roll on the summer!
I'll start this post with our move down to our current flat in Kawasaki. Since our moving experiences in London had all been painstakingly lengthy searching process, we started looking for a flat in Kawasaki about a month before our planned move but as it turned out, we found a perfect flat almost immediately and then had to negotiate to delay the move itself. Given that Lucy's Japanese is near-fluent, she did most of the negotiating and dealing with the paperwork. It all happened very quickly and we arranged to move in mid-March (16th). Located in Oshima-itchoume, only a twenty minute walk away from both Kawasaki station and Ishido sensei's dojo (道場, "training hall") and with numerous konbinis and a decent supermarket within easy walking distance, the location is perfect. Inside, it's what's known as a "one room apartment," meaning that bedroom and living room are all one room with only a thin partition separating it from the kitchen.
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| Part of Via Cittadella, a street of cafés and restaurants |
Shortly before moving, I'd also managed to find a new job working as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in a junior high school, teaching kids aged 12-15. Working for an eikaiwa had its good sides: I could choose my working schedule; I could take a day off whenever I felt like it; I met some fantastic people, both coworkers and students; the atmosphere was relatively relaxed. The main issue was with the salary, as is sadly so often the case: I was being paid Y1,500/lesson (while the "clients" were paying around Y7,000) but if I didn't get any students, I wouldn't get paid, even if I spent the whole day there. There were some days when I started work at 10am and didn't get any students until about 5pm. Of course, I could work evenings but the whole reason I left event catering was that I wanted my evenings back so I started looking around and found a job with a company that provides ALTs to schools from elementary school to high school. I was lucky enough to be sent to schools in Kawasaki, only 50mins' commute away but, while both schools are public junior high schools, they are quite distinct.
The school I started in is slightly further away from home than the other and I started at the same time as three other new teachers (PE; Japanese; home economics) and we each had to introduce ourselves at Monday's assembly in front of some 500 kids; I was told, however, to speak only English, which made the whole thing much easier. We were also introduced by the headmaster to the rest of the teaching staff so I didn't have to speak a word of Japanese. The second school I went to was a rather interesting experience. I walked in the gate (the main school building was on my right with the playground on my left), while groups of half a dozen or so kids were practicing their baseball skills but I didn't really pay them any mind. After a few seconds, I noticed that there were repeated shouts of "Ohayou gozaimasu" (おはようございます, "good morning") and as I looked, I realised that, as I was walking past, each group would stop, face me, take their baseball caps off and bow as they greeted me. Unsure of the correct response, I nodded and replied with the same greeting. I then met the headmaster, had a chat with him and introduced myself (in Japanese) to the other teachers. The main difference in these schools, I felt, was that the latter was much more friendly than the latter: we had a nomikai (飲み会, lit. "drinking party"), at which all the new teachers had to give a short speech and I got to know everyone very well; all the staff are much more likely to stop and have a chat than in the first school; I was invited to the sports day.
As for teaching itself, I always knew working with kids is immensely challenging and I have a huge amount of respect for those who make it their career. The first-grade kids are fantastic and a pleasure to teach; I guess they're also closer to that stage of childhood where they'll be entertained with a cardboard box which, if you add it to their energy and friendliness, makes for a very entertaining experience. The second- and third-graders are more of a challenge as some of them are getting illusions that they're "too cool for school" but at least the second-graders are warming to me. We'll see how long the third-graders take...
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| "After using the toilet, let's be sure to flush." |
Life since then has consisted mostly of tackling my new job and getting to know the are we now live in. We visited Kawasaki Daishi (川崎大師), a large temple officially known as Heiken-ji (平間寺) serving as the headquarters for the Chizan sect (智山派) of Shingon Buddhism (真言宗) and had a proper nosey around the station for good, cheap restaurants and bars. We also made good use of the Kawasaki branch of Genki Sushi, a kaitenzushi (回転寿司, conveyor-belt sushi restaurant) place. The weather has also got much warmer and the temperature stays nicely in the mid-twenties. Roll on the summer!
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