On The Road: July 2012

Previously I mentioned briefly the thought process behind teaching kindergarten and despite having experience last year, I knew that this job would be very different. After researching the school and it's teaching philosophies both Cassandra and I were impressed and excited about the immersive approach to learning and the emphasis on extra curricular activities and trips that were designed to help students learn outside of the classroom. Without putting too finer point on it, there were many aspects that I believed in whole-heartedly and the job would take us in a different direction and we would know after a year if teaching this level would be for us.

Before we started the job we were able to have a visiting day to witness everyday life which would help us to know what would be expected and make up our daily routine.

The school is split into two parts: Yashio which is a Japanese kindergarten and Sunnyside International where the students are taught and led by foreign teachers such as us.

The forest: a huge play area with rivers, slides, rope swings, everything young children could ever want to keep them entertained.

Another playground in the Yashio grounds.

Part of Yashio and a playground for sports and activities.

On the first day we were able to wander around and see how the school worked. We would later discuss which age group we wanted to teach from 2 year old up to 5 year olds. Both Cassandra and I were keen to work with the older students because it would give us more of a chance to develop English skills and less of a chance of dealing with dirty diapers!!

The school system, staff and facilities are exactly what you would expect from a Japanese Kindergarten with no detail overlooked and meticulous planning and organisation.

There are even students who travel more than an hour a day to attend the school because it is quite specialist and unique that the students are learning everything in English.

I decided to take my camera with me to try and capture my first day and this was the outcome......

Welcome to White class: Yes this is what I saw upon entering my classroom for the first time.

It is always a good idea to take a photo and try and learn the kids names as quick as possible. For some reason you always learn the naughty ones first....

Exhibit A

With one of my students, her brother and my co-teacher on 'Father's Day'.

With one of my 'early students' who arrives around 8am so we hang out in the mornings.

Another of my early students who is one of the happiest kids I have ever met.

The 'bentos' or packed lunches the kids bring on Wednesdays are literally a work of art.

My mum never made me packed lunches like this although if she did I might have ended up watching 'Sex in the City' and listening to more Elton John albums...

Which is what I think Cass might be encouraging in 'Red class' ?!

Here are some of her little angels washing their indoor shoes.

The kids English vocabulary is incredible and they listen and understand so much. We are teaching them some pretty advanced gymnastic routines.

The students have a ridiculously busy schedule and some arrive at school at 8am and stay until after 5pm. However they seem to have a great deal of fun and we are really enjoying it too!!

Packing up: One of the hardest things about teaching abroad is constantly having to pack up everything you think you need for an entire year. Each year I stand before a room littered with my crap and mumble some half-hearted desire to one day become a minimalist. It may be that my organisational skills are lacking or the fact that I like to leave packing until less than 24 hours before I am due to be on the plane but this part of the job is always a personal nightmare for me.
My only inspiration is sheer determination that manifests itself into masculine thoughts such as "I'm a bloody man and I will pack all of these things in this bloody bag". Then I glance over at Cassandra and she seems to have the same desire and intensity as she is on her knees using the full force of her body in order to push her 10th pair of shoes into a side pocket of her backpack.

The airport: I absolutely hate airports which wasn't helped a few years ago when my flight was grounded the very morning that the Icelandic volcano created the infamous ash cloud.
The paperwork, visas and ridiculous questioning also contribute and add to the fact that I feel like I am on trial every time I approach the flight desk and this would be one of the most difficult check-ins I have had to negotiate. As the day progressed I began to feel more and more like we weren't meant to fly that day but despite being stopped by the police for speeding 5 kilometres outside the airport, reaching check-in 2 minutes before closing and standing by as the manager discussed with his staff whether they could let us on the flight, we made it. It did nothing to ease my anxiety caused by airports.

Touching down: Despite being hired by a recruitment company, we arrived in Narita via a short stop to see Cassandra's Mom in Korea and were expected to make our own way to Mito for our orientation. I will explain all of the useful information we gathered from the orientation now...yep that will do. We also had to complete medicals and more paperwork before we travelled to our hometown of Kaminokawa.
There is always a mixture of excitement and nerves when going to see your new school and accommodation presumably because subconsciously there is a knowing that you want them to be good because there is little you will be able to do to change either of them for at least the next 12 months.
Now being British, I feel that I might have been given a certain amount of sarcasm and wit to secretly enjoy such situations as arriving in a town like Kaminokawa - so feel free to enjoy my pain.
Firstly we arrived to the precise type of cold driving rain that a) We could enjoy 290 days of the year by staying in England and b) the kind of weather that feels personal - the water hitting you at an almost horizontal angle to make sure that it hurts and that you're soaked. So running around doing tasks such as filing for citizenship and obtaining health insurance was an absolute nightmare. As it turned out things were only about to get worse.

Home sweet home: When we finally arrived at our new abode, I prepared myself for the worst and tried diligently to lower expectations. Cassandra and I asked to live together and more than hinted that we would like reasonable sized accommodation even if it meant paying extra. The first impressions (after being hit by a chill that made me want to go outside to warm up) were that it was actually quite spacious and then it dawned on me why - because there was absolutely no fucking furniture. I apologise to family for my foul and abusive language but if ever there is a time to use such profanities then maybe this is it. Our coordinator sensing our puzzled turning into horrified expressions offered us consolation in the fact that a futon would be arriving that evening and would we be OK to manage without a washing machine and fridge for a week? To be perfectly honest it was so cold when we first arrived that I was wondering if we would need a bloody fridge or if we should just keep our dairy products on the layer of ice covering the window sill. Anyway the question seemed to be completely rhetoric as there was little we could do and at least we would have somewhere to sleep?
Well almost as it would seem that there is a slight difference in the western idea of a futon with that of the eastern variation. In fact to illustrate this point, if you google 'western futon' and 'Japanese futon' you will soon learn what we were about to learn - that there is one main difference in terms of a structure being involved in the former and not the latter. Ergo Cassandra and I spent a week camped on the floor of a freezing apartment with nothing but a duvet which wasn't quite big enough to go underneath us to provide padding nor was it large enough to cover us for warmth. Surely things could only get better....

Wheredafukawi?
After dealing with the aforementioned setbacks, we set about thinking more positively and after a few days of reading literature and perusing maps, we ventured out to explore Kaminokawa. We knew that we would be living in quite a small town and soon realised that it was in fact very rural. We also new that nearby was Utsonimiya a much larger city and judging by the map we were close to a train station so there would be many more amenities quite close-by or so we thought. Our positive minds were definitely put to the test when we walked for an hour to get to the train station because that put more emphasis on finding stores, banks and useful outlets closer by.

In retrospect it is funny to look back at your own first impressions of a place and wonder how they might be affected by weather, personal mood and tiredness. To arrive thousands of miles away in a foreign land, tired and dazed - first impressions are worth very little and it takes time to adapt and see your surroundings for what they really are - there is beauty in Kaminokawa, at times it is just hidden really well.

Our geographical location. We can be in Tokyo in about 1hr20mins on the train.

Eventually we got some furniture and you should be careful what you wish for - my grandparents have more up to date items in their attic but we did get some awesome lamp shades and check out the brown curtains.