めっちゃ忙しい！(So Busy!)

So the reason I haven't posted in awhile is because all my time has gone to teaching and lesson planning. Since I have never taught before things are a little hectic. But it's starting to get easier now. Besides going to church today I mostly slept. I don't know but for some reason I was so tired! It pretty much rained all day so I'm blaming it on that, haha. Well, I'll post the entries I was intending to put up a few days ago. Enjoy!

5/17
This morning Megan and I got up at 6:00am to go jogging. At first we got a little lost, but we eventually found where we wanted to go. I probably mentioned this before but there is a castle right by our house called Kishiwada Castle. Sister Sato said that a lot of people jog around this area so that’s where we decided to go. I wasn't expecting a lot of people to be up this early, but there were a fair amount of people up and about.




There were people jogging, walking their dogs, and even fishing by Kishiwada Castle. Many of them would greet us with ohayou gozaimsu or good morning so we started greeting everyone else as well. We came across a park by Kishiwada castle and stopped to look because we saw that several people were gathered around. We then realized they were doing the radio morning exercise or razio taisho. We asked if it was ok then joined in with them. Maybe we will join them tomorrow as well.

Around 8:30am Sister Sato drove us to Kishiwada station so that Sister Yukimoto could help us buy a month train pass. Sister Sato was really nice and took all the textbooks with her in the car so we wouldn’t have to carry them with us on the train.

Today we just had our students take an English proficiency test. Overall it went smoothly. We were able to get all the tests graded and the students divided into their sections.

5/23
I’ve been so busy this week! Having never taught before it takes me awhile to plan a lesson. But I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. I went to observe Meg’s class on Friday and got more of an idea of how I am supposed to teach. So I think things will start to go a lot more smoothly. Today I actually had time to study Japanese a little and to take a nap. I slept in until 7 this morning, then after making breakfast I studied and did my laundry. I got to skype my family too which was a lot of fun. I introduced my host family to my parents and Sister Sato got a chance to practice her English.

Before lunch, Sister Sato took Megan and I on a little tour of the town. She showed us where the post office and the bank was and also a place where we could jog. She showed us a small road that was the original road that Shoguns would use when traveling back and forth between the castles and temples in the Edo period. It’s paved now and there is a little traffic, but there are still houses from the Meiji Era that are still standing. I took a few pictures today, but I want to go back and take a few more. Sister Sato then showed us a little shopping street that she goes to when she needs to buy groceries and such. She also introduced us to a few people from the neighborhood. After that we went back home to eat lunch. We had ramen with bean sprouts and pork cutlets.




Tonight we went to the church for a sports night. Shiho, Naoki, and Mari from our class were there as well. We played soccer volleyball. The rules are you can’t use your hands; only your feet, head, and chest. We really didn’t keep track of points but it was still a lot of fun. There was this 11-year-old boy there (I didn’t catch his name) that was a lot of fun. He kept yelling heta kuso! which basically means you’re really bad at this! And he kept calling me and Megan by different names. Megan was Marrissa (emphasis on the arrr) and I was Melissa. He was just really fun and energetic. We then played four square for a little bit, but we ended up having a discussion about how to use ageru, kureru, and morau. The first two mean to give and the last means to receive. If you know any Japanese you know how confusing these can get.

Megan, Hoku, and I went home together. At Kishiwada where Hoku gets off at, we all went to the McDonalds by the station and got something to eat. We got it to go and on our way back to the station we stopped and listened to some street performers. There were two guys singing and one playing the guitar. They were pretty good from what we heard, though, we didn’t stay and listen to the whole song because we had to catch the train home.


Hopefully I will be able to post more often this week. Meg, the graduate student in charge of us, is teaching my class tomorrow. I guess it's for her to see what level the students are at and how I can best teach them. I hope it's not because I'm so bad at teaching that she has to show me how, haha.

I'll be going to Institute every Thursday. It's all in Japanese so It's hard to understand what's going on, but it will be good practice I think. Megan and I went this Thursday with our student and friend Shiho. She is going to be serving her mission soon. On Thursday after class she took us to a bookstore because I needed to buy a book for my Japanese class called Baka no Kabe or The Wall of Fools. They didn't have it so Shiho is letting me borrow her copy. But I bought The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Japanese That Japanese Don't Know. They are all in Japanese, of course. These are just the rough English translation of the titles. Anyway, we went and ate crepes at a little shop before joining up with Ayaka and Tomoe to walk to Institute together. There were a lot more people at institute than I expected. When I went to Institute in Kyoto last year there were only a handful of people.



Until next time! (That's a banana, custard, and chocolate sprinkle crepe. So yummy!)


I almost forgot! Sister Sato explained the about the shrine next door. The house we live in is the house her husband grew up in and I think it's been in the family for awhile. I'm not sure if her husband owns the shrine, but I believe his family has been taking care of it over the generations. Surrounding the shrine are small stone pillars with names of people and towns written on them. These are people, towns, and businesses that have contributed donations to the up-keeping of the shrine. It's a Shinto shrine so people come to offer prayers I think. Let me know if you have any questions because I can always ask my host-dad.


This is the view of the shrine from my window. I plan on taking more pictures.