Tales of Kyoto

Hello beautiful darlings,

So I need to explain a little bit about the positions in a public school in Japan.  It's pretty similar to most American schools, but I want to provide some different label names and some information on the hierarchy.

Okay, everyone who teaches at the school is called sensei.  Sensei means teacher.  So we got our Tanaka-sensei, Kimura-sensei, Hashimoto-sensei, A-sensei, B-sensei, C-sensei, etc. etc. etc.  And they basically equate to our Mr. Smith and Mrs. Gomez and Ms. Brown of American schools.  (I'm seriously just using any name that pops into my head.)  Anyways, so sensei is reserved for teachers in a school setting (and also doctors, Ph.D's, and other positions, but that's a different story for another time).

I suck at updating

Hi all you beautiful people on the Internet,

So as you can tell...I suck at updating.  I have a youtube, instagram, and this blog, and I continually pass up opportunities to update for XYZ reasons (and it's usually my addiction to Netflix, heh heh).  Thus, I just want to apologize for not updating as much as I would like to and should.

Sooo much has happened in the past few months since moving to Japan, and I've taken a bajillion pictures and videos and seen and been to so many things.  I'm also trying to do the novel thing for November, but you can guess as to how well I'm faring with that.  I've got like 2000 words only so far...but it's a start!  I've never seriously written a long piece of fiction since like elementary school, so I'm actually really excited to put one of my ideas down on digital Google doc paper.  I tend to create characters and settings and sometimes whole plots and timelines for a work of fiction, but they usually stay in my head or very roughly drafted on a series of post-it notes and scrap paper.  I need to get my shit together!  >____<

Anyways, I'm about to declare some things here on the Internet, and hopefully, making these promises concretely documented, I might follow through.

ただいま、大阪。I'm back, Osaka!

Alright, it's been more than a month since I've arrived in Japan, and I have had had plenty of time to settle in.  Let me tell you: Everything is practically perfect.  I feel like I'm experiencing a second cycle of culture shock, and I'm in the honeymoon phase yet again.  The mountains are in the horizon.  I've gotten to make friends with people from all over the world through my job program.  My co-workers make me feel welcomed.  My apartment is clean and spacious (for a Japanese apartment).  There's a supermarket with almost everything I would ever need right behind my apartment building.  I'm within 30-40 minutes of the main city center by train.  My boyfriend is in the same country as me. And I have a salary!

Yeah, life is pretty good, and I feel almost guilty for being so happy.  I know my family is happy to hear that I'm happy.  I feel like it helps them to worry less about my well-being.

Anyways, since the end of my job orientation (2 days) in Tokyo and upon arriving in Osaka, I have been talking in and listening to so much Japanese!  I felt really really rusty since I hadn't practiced for two years, but oh my god, in just this one month, I feel like I've been given a crash course in conversational and work Japanese.  Now, I'm not saying that my mind's eye has been opened to understanding Japanese 100% because there is still like 70% of conversation and paperwork that I feel I cannot understand, but I have had so much authentic practice by just living in Japan that I have almost been brought back up to speed from where I left off.  It's crazy!  Being surrounded by the language you're trying to learn really helps improve language skills exponentially that no one hour a day weekly class could ever hope to.

So yeah, I'm adjusting to life in Japan pretty well.  The Board of Education and the employees at the city hall have helped me immensely, especially the translator, who is happy that I'm not a hopeless newb.  They've helped me get things in order like my bank account, my cell phone, and my residence card.  My senpai, the other Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) who live in the same building and work in the same town as me although at different schools, have also been supremely helpful in helping me learn to sort trash, take the bus to work, understand some workplace culture and habits, shop locally, etc.  I am so grateful that I wasn't just plopped into this rural town and expected to fend for myself. Shhhhhit, because if I had, it would have taken me A LOT longer to adjust and finally feel comfortable (and find good cheap food to eat, ha ha).

I will post a picture summary below soon.  I'm currently typing this on my school laptop.  Yeah, there is definitely a good chunk of what is called "desk warming."  I have a lot of free time on my hands despite being a full-time ALT.  Picture update coming soon!