Everything's Cute In Japan

...EVEN the snack foods!  These are like the veggie crisps you get in the US.  Except since they are in Japan they have to be super cute, so they are shapped like hearts....and I love it!

First 2 Weeks of Teaching

On Friday, Kris and I completed our second week of teaching (though it was only the first full week).  So far, we both really enjoy our students and teaching at MeySen.  I will tell you about my class and teaching experience first and then Kris will tell about his.

Let me just start by saying that I think I may have to retire after teaching at MeySen: this is pretty much a teacher's paradise.  My day starts at 1pm and ends around 7pm (Monday-Friday) and 8am-3pm on Saturdays.  I get 3 hours of planning time each day, so I never have to take work home!  The curriculum is provided and written out, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel, but I do get to be creative with how I teach it. 

Common area on the first floor of our building.  It has a real fire place for warm, cozy fires on winter nights.

Check out the sweet massive origami cranes made out of metal!  This is the common area on the second floor of our building, which is where our classrooms are.    My classroom is the one on the right in the back.

There are 3 aquariums at the entrance of the first floor; two of them are for fish and the middle one is for turtles.  The kids keep their inside and outside shoes in these shoe boxes (since in Japan you can't wear the same shoes inside that you wear outside).

But the best part is definitely my students.  I have 13 students in my class and they are so much fun.  They come 4-6 times per week after a whole day of regular Japanese school.  These kiddos make me laugh with some of the things they say and do, and they impress me with how hard they work and how well they speak English.  They've got tons of energy and like to be silly, but they are good kids and can work really hard. Also they are very interested in the fact that Kris and I are married, since his classroom is across the hall from mine.  We don't do anything to display that we are married, but I talked about it when we were discussing a story about a man who lost his wedding ring.  Now every time they see Kris, they make hearts with their hands and say "Ohhhh!  Mrs. Lauren! Love love!" or something like that.  It's so funny!  

I like that my classroom is expected to be fun and full of talking -- they point is to get the kids to speak English to each other and to me; so I don't have to keep telling them to "stop talking and be quiet".  When they are doing projects or seat work, they can talk and help each other.  I really like having that kind of classroom environment.

Each class at MeySen has the name of an animal.  My class is the 3rd grade Tigers. Here are some  pictures of my classroom (I share it with a teacher who teaches English to the students who go to the Japanese kindergarten, so most of the decorations in the room aren't mine.  But I do have 2 bulletin boards).



This is my classroom!

 

Class Rules



Bulletin board for our theme, which is South America this trimester.  Students are learning about 5 regions of South America, and this week we made South American Rainsticks.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of this tiger I made out of construction paper.  The secret? I printed the tiger from clipart onto a transparency and put it up on a wall and traced it.  I will keep him all year but change the background and other parts to match the season. 

The first two weeks of teaching have been a fun experience for me too. I was pretty nervous at first since I've never taught before. It's been a little bit stressful, but I'm also really enjoying myself. I teach four classes, three times a week each. I have a first, second, fourth, and sixth grade class, which means I had to memorize four different levels of curriculum. I also have over 85 names to remember, with a name test from my supervisor at the end of this coming week. You would not believe how much first graders look alike. I also think that girls shouldn't be allowed to change their hair style for the first three weeks of class. I also still have a lot to learn about teaching in general and my extracurricular responsibilities.


Despite all that, I love my kids and my job. Each grade has it's own quirks and differences. I love playing on the playground with my first and second graders. I love singing with them too; they get really into the music. My favorite class so far is the fourth grade one. They are fun and really responsive to my questions in class. They love to talk in English and they're not too old to enjoy some singing. The sixth graders are my toughest challenge. They are just old enough to start worrying about what their friends think, so it's like pulling teeth to get them to say anything in class. I've noticed that Japanese sixth graders are much more shy and image-conscious than the sixth graders I worked with back in the States. The class seems to be getting more comfortable with me though. They participate more each time and sometimes I even get them to laugh and have fun for a couple minutes. I can't wait to start going on trips with them to get to know them better.

Kris shares his room with the Japanese kindergarten teacher.  This is his wall to decorate for friends club.

This is a point chart for the tables in Kris' class.  He came up with an excellent way to manage his class by awarding points to each table.  The winning table gets to line up first and the losing table has to stack the winning table's chairs.

A Note About Radiation

I know many of you have been concerned about us being over here with the "radiation scare".  And, indeed, for the people living near the Fukushima plant, it is a scary situation.  But I want to assure you that, though the media may make it seem like all of Japan is in catastrophe and is covered in radiation, this is not the case.

On April 16, the US Embassy downgraded the travel advisory issued originally issued on March 16 to US citizens in Japan. No one beyond the 50-mile evacuation zone needs to be worried about health risks (which includes us, living in the Miyagi prefecture)  They said,

"...while the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant remains serious and dynamic, the health and safety risks to areas beyond the 50 mile evacuation zone, and particularly to .... Ibaraki, Miyagi and Yamagata prefectures which are outside a 50 mile radius of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are low and do not pose significant risks to U.S. citizens."

Also, Tohoku University has been monitoring the radiation situation in Sendai since March 18, and they have never found any health risks or abnormal radiation in Sendai.  In fact, the radiation in Sendai is lower than in some US cities (like San Diego). You can see their report here.

So the bottom line is that we are just as safe here as we would be in the United States.  We thank you for your prayers and your concern, but please know that there isn't any reason to be alarmed at our decision to continue to stay in Japan.

Please continue to pray for those who have lost so much in the earthquake and tsunami.  And please pray that God would use this situation to point others to himself.  Thank you and much love to you all!

Kris' 28th Birthday

Though we are in a foreign country, I didn't want my beloved's birthday to go unnoticed. I bought him a present that I knew would be late in getting here since I ordered it over the internet (It was Munchkin!!!); so I had to do something a little extra to make his birthday special.  I decided I would bake Kris a cake and bring it to him during work. Sounds easy enough, right?  Welcome to Japan as a foreigner, where even the easiest tasks are difficult. This adventure started out simply enough: I found easy cake and icing recipes online that had good reviews.  Though our oven (LINK) is smaller than most US microwaves, I knew I could use the mixer and American oven in the immersion school's staff kitchen bake the cake.

I knew it would be a challenge to find the ingrediants I needed (baking powder, powdered sugar, and vanilla) since they would be in Japanese.  So I did a little Google research and looked up the Kanji, Romanji, and Katakana of these items (yes, Japan has to be complicated with 4 different alphabet systems).  I figured if I went prepared, I would be okay (especially since vanilla sounds like "bahneerah" and baking powder is simply "baking powderuu").  Well, the vanilla was a success.  The baking powder and powdered sugar were not.  What I thought was baking powder actually turned out to be baking soda (which I found out after I had made the cake).  When I was mixing the icing and it wouldn't absorb the liquid, I decided to taste the "powdered sugar" -- and discoverd that it was actually CORNSTARCH! (Coornstarchee!) Since we don't have a blender or coffee grinder, I had to just go with regular sugar.  The result was a rather grainy icing that looked exactly like...well, you can figure it out...(I liked it, Lauren is just a perfectionist. :-)  )

Though the cake smelled very good, I was embarrassed to walk into Kris' office with this poor speciman.  As my friend Bethany said, "It's kind of like a Charley Brown cake." But I did it anyway because I knew that the thought is what mattered most.  And though it looked rather sorry, it didn't taste too bad (especially with 2 wrong ingrediants!).  And I think Kris really enjoyed his surprise; or, at least he seemed to. (It was great! She had the whole office singing happy B-day to me.)

Eunice, the other 3rd grade teacher (until Greg gets back), suggested that we take our classes in to sing to Kris. She had a fake cake with real candles that she lit.  Our kids got a big kick out of sneaking into Kris' room and singing to him.  He told the students that he was 128 years old! (It's amazing how easy it is to get 2nd and 3rd graders to laugh. Even I can do it.)

For Kris' birthday dinner, we followed the new teacher birthday tradition of going out for Korean barbecue with some other teachers.  Since the usual place had significant damage from the earthquake (see here), we tried out a new place down the road.  We were surprised to find an all-you-can-eat platter for pretty cheap (for Japan).  It was heaping with meat!  It was strips of pork and what we thought was chicken.  The "chicken" was really chewy and fatty -- and turned out to be pork intestine!!!! (Yum! It actually tasted good, it was just really chewy.)  No wonder the platter was so inexpensive!  Kris, Aaron, and Bethany didn't seem to mind it and had several helpings, but Sarah, Alycia, Caitlin, and I couldn't stomach it (but at least I tried it).  And since it was Kris' birthday, they gave him a free BOTTLE of wine! 

It was a birthday celebration filled with the unexpected!

Welcome to our New(est) Apartment!

On March 28 we moved from our tiny apartment on campus to a bigger apartment 5 minutes from campus.   Gone are the days of no where to sit but on our beds and doorways too small for Kris!  Gone are the days of having to invite ourselves over to other peoples' apartments -- now we are the hosts with the most :-) We LOVE our new place: we'd like to welcome you in and give you a tour.

Entryway  

<> 

Please take off your outside shoes at the door and put on a pair of guest slippers from the shoe cupboard.  You can hang your coat up too.



 

The Kitchen

Instead of 1 burner for a stove, we now have 2! We also have plenty of cabinet space and a full-size refrigerator (small for US sizes, but huge compared to our last one!).  And now we have room for guests to come over and eat too!

View from the kitchen sink.  The hall to the left is the entry way. Directly in front of you is the living room.  There are sliding doors to the living room so you can block it off to keep heat in the kitchen, or you can take the doors off completely to make it one big room.  The door to the right leads to the tatami room.

This is our microwave AND our oven -- doesn't look like I will be baking big batches of anything.  Pretty hard to use since it's all in Japanese!  The assistants are going to label it in English for us, though. 

Living Room



Living Room view from the sliding doors.  Notice our laundry drying on the porch the "Japanese" way?

Kris working at the desk.

Bed Room

Our bedroom is pretty tiny, but at least we finally are sleeping on the same bed now instead to 2 twins pushed together! (Duffy is enjoying having the whole bed to himself right now)



View from our window of the adorable kids in our housing area.  They are all over and they are so cute.  They say "hello" and "bye bye" to us over and over.  It's adorable.


Shower Room

I still LOVE my Japanese-style baths! You shower on one side of the room and then soak in the tub afterward.  I think the mirror and shelves are low because people in Japan will often squat on a stool to shower.



Toilet Room

Since this is Japan, the toilet is in a small room that is separate from the sink and shower.  I took a picture of our toilet to show you how it comes with a remote-control bidet!  And see the spout at the top of the toilet?  That's traditionally used to rinse off your hands.

Quotes from The Office make for good bathroom reading!



Our washer and dryer are between the shower room and toilet room.  Now you can see why we hang as many clothes as possible!  Otherwise, we are guessing at what the machine is doing!

Tatami Room

This is our traditional tatami room.  It has a nice window ledge and two huge armours for our clothes -- we each have our own instead of having to share one!

Life As Normal?

Slowly life in Sendai (at least in the Izumi ward) is getting closer to the norm.  The grocery store closest to us has most of the aisles open and there is no longer a mad rush for milk in fear it might run out. Even one of the grocery stores at the bus station is fully stocked.  Most stores and restaurants are open and operating, though many are on limited hours with limited stock or menu items.  Several teachers who evacuated to the States have returned to begin the new school year next week.


We've gone from evacuees and relief volunteers to teachers preparing for a new school year to start on Wednesday.  It's crazy to think that after a month of taking shelter in northern Japan and helping with earthquake relief and cleanup, we'll finally be able to do what we came here to do: teach!  The first week of March, when we were student-teaching full time, seems like a world away.


We've been getting into the routine of our seemingly new roles and settling into our new apartment and feeling used to the 900+ aftershocks we've had since "The Big One" on March 11.  That is, until a rather unsettling "aftershock" (of 7.4 magnitude) on Thursday night, shortly after 11:30 pm.  At first it seemed just like all the other aftershocks, but it soon started to shake up more than we were used to.  We dove under the kitchen table and waited out the shaking.  We could feel the building swaying side to side and there was even a little of the scary "up and down" movement.  The scariest part about this aftershock was wondering, as we hid under the table, "Is this going to be another big one?" We prayed through the tremor and just waited for it to calm down. As the lights began to fade, Kris made a mental map of the route where the nearest flashlight was.


The lights went out (as commonly happens with some earthquakes as a safety measure to prevent electrical fires) and the shaking calmed down.  Kris crawled to the flashlight and we got dressed and headed outside.  We went to check on our friends in the building next door who had also gone outside.


Most of us felt a little rattled, but we were okay and our apartments weren't damaged. The worst part was when we were under the table, wondering if the aftershock was going to turn into another "big one".  We also prayed together for God's protection against tsunamis (and He did protect the coast, since there were tsunami warnings but no tsunamis).  Our supervisors came to check on us, to make sure we were safe and not scared.  They told us it would be safe to go back inside.  We stood outside for about twenty minutes, waiting out the aftershocks of the "aftershock", just to be safe.  Kris and I went inside and cuddled together to keep warm in our powerless apartment.


The next morning the power was still out, but we got dressed and headed to work as normal (thanks to the alarm on our charged cell phone).  Then I got to thinking about how this post-earthquake lifestyle has become the norm for us.  Often when there are aftershocks (not including that big one), we don't pay them much attention -- and sometimes we don't even notice them.  We are used to seeing 20 cars lined up on the road, waiting to fill up with gas, or walking in a grocery store and seeing several bare shelves. Even being expected to go to work and be productive when there is no electricity doesn't seem outrageous to us.  It's funny how what the "norm" is can change and how adaptable people can be to their environment.


Kindergarten was supposed to start that morning, but because of the power outage and earthquake damage, it was canceled for the next two days and the start of our classes for the after school program was pushed back two days.  It is unfortunate that the school was finally polished floor to ceiling and workers had finished fixing the major cracks in the walls and ceiling just hours before the big aftershock. There are now fresh cracks in many places in the buildings and on the school grounds.  All that hard work will have to be completed again! 


Luckily, aside from cracks in the wall, no harm was done to the school or the people in the area.  I've heard some reports of injuries and fatalities, but our supervisor said that sometimes happens with aftershocks because people react out of fear and neglect common sense (thought I'm not saying all the fatalities and injuries are a result of this; just that it is not all that uncommon).


We are thankful that God protected us again, that there was no tsunami, that our electricity was turned on in less than 24 hours, that no students and parents were in the school at the time, and that the earthquake did not cause any further damage to the nuclear power plants.  We are certainly seeing God's protection over us.  Thank you for your prayers and please keep them coming :-)