Letter # 1 to Eboni Teacher from Misato Watanabe 2nd grade Elementary School student (verbatim): Hello. Mice to meet you, Eboni teacher. My name is Misato Watanabe. When is your birthday? My birthday is September 5th.
Letter # 2 from Fuyumi Teacher, How are you? Me I Happy. How old are you teacher?

These are the first two pieces of paper I was handed in envelopes all taped up with beautiful decorations and stickers as soon as I walked into my first English class today. I had to teach three classes today. The first was 1st and 2nd grade students, then 5th and 6th, then 3rd and 4th. Fuyumi and Misato did such a wonderful job on those letters they wrote. I was so excited and shocked because I figured they would just be filled with pictures. For a 2nd graders who's native language is Japanese and has only had informal training and not very much writing I say that both of those girls did an excellent job! Also because the other students acted like they didn't understand a word I said or could write down anything. I have a feeling I'm really going to like this class. There is only one person in the first grade at this school and only 26 students in the whole school! I had a great time today and they made sure I was well taken care of. During cleaning period one of the students gave me a "mini-potato" that she found in one of the gardens the school has. (Yes, they grow corn--and cook it, and many other vegetables)

I used the same lesson from yesterday with this group of students and it went over just as well. Only today we made cards with our name on them and if you lost at Rock Paper Scissors you had to give up your name card. I made some of mine in advance and some with them but all I did was write my name and stick an American flag sticker on my cards. I made enough so that even if I beat the students at the game they could still get a card from me. I gave them NC pencils that I got while I was still in Carolina. They like those too but it was so funny because they were trying to put them in their pencil cases, but the pencil was too long. One student was telling his Japanese homeroom teacher that it wouldn't fit but they way his voice was going up and down and he was so surprised it didn't fit, I fell out laughing. Shoji (today's school) has chickens and roosters at their school too but not as many as Toyoshige (the one I was at yesterday). The 2nd graders cleaned up the cage and changed the water and food so nicely. I'm a still slightly in awe.

Afterschool today all I wanted to do is come home and lay down but I didn't. I decided I'd do some cleaning and then I realized that I really hate my living room. Well, maybe not hate, but I really don'tlike it. I want a desk. I'm tired of sitting on the floor. I want a cordless phone, I'm tired of being tied down to talking in the living room or stretching the cord as far as it will go to talk and do something at the same time. I decided that when I get paid in September I am making a home improvement list and those two things are right at the top of the list! I went out to the grocery today because I had to buy myself something to drink at lunch. I cannot drink the milk that they drink because it is just tooooo thick. Its like 3.5 or 3.7% which might as well be whole milk to me and its been so long since I've had whole milk that I just can't stand it. There is this drink they have here called Miu which tastes kinda like Gatorade. Its one of the best sports drinks over here to me so I went and bought some of those to drink at lunch. I hope they dont complain, but I just cannot drink that milk.

One of the old JETs from this area invited me to her house for a sleepover this Friday. I'm not sure how it will turn out but I bet it beats being home alone. I hope I don't end up having to eat my words! But the one who invited me is cool and a few of the people I know she invited are okay too, some of them are just a LITTLE too high strung for me. I'm a low key kinda girl and high strung and I don't match. I hope that it doesn't turn out to be a huge affair with a bunch of people because I don't do crowds...
"Who knows what the future holds?"

I've had a really good day today. I had to teach my first lesson at the Elementary School and it was also my first visit there. I don't get to visit them but once a month, sometimes twice so today was a real treat. When I got there, the students were practicing for a school festival that will be held Sept 7th. The principal and I went out to watch their marching band. It was quite good I must say. They have many formations and play all types of instruments including recorder/piano drums, trumpet, trombone, and cymbals. So, they played a song called Fuji-san for me then I did my self-intro and a student responded to me. She said the best thing about her school was #1 that on a fine day (they say fine instead of clear) you can see the mountain from the school and its very big and very beautiful and #2 that the students were very friendly and so were the teachers. She was very right! After the welcome meeting I had class with the 1st-3rd graders. I did a small introduction and said Hi my name is...and then showed them pictures. They really don't understand much English at all and neither do the teachers so I try to be short and use few words which helps. The teachers today were very helpful and they understood most of what I was saying since it was the basic self introduction including-- Hello my name is..what is your name? Response: My name is... Hi, .....Its nice to meet you. Response: Its nice to meet you too. So I took each student one by one in front of the class and we introduced ourselves and everyone clapped. Then I taught them Rock, Paper, Scissors which is the English version of Janken so they already know how to play. It was fun and the whole afternoon, they would run up to me in the hall holding out their hand in a rock wanting me to play. These students are so smart and get attached quickly. I was in the teachers room after our English class and 3 of the 1st grade boys came down the hall yelling "Eboni Senseiiiii" and they wanted to show me their class pets which are two rabbits. They were very cute. Then they took me to a cage where they have a rooster and chicken coup. Then I had lunch with the 2nd grade students and teacher. At Toyoshige, there are only 4 students in the second grade class. So we had a very intimate lunch. It was nice because their teacher understands a little English and they would ask her to ask me questions. How old I am, how tall I am, etc. There was ham in the salad, so I told them I don't eat pork and of course they were surprised but then got over it. After we cleaned up from eating lunch, the 2nd grade students took me back to the cage, but this time they cleaned up the cage. They took out the old straw and and replaced it with fresh grass. The took rocks from the gravel drive way and replaced those that had been either raked out by the chickens or by them when they were cleaning. They replaced the water and fed the birds. I was so impressed with the way they were so attentive and well behaved when they were cleaning. Like not trying to make the birds holler or throwing stuff at them.
When they were done cleaning the chickens had lain some eggs and they gave me one. These birds are very expensive and lay really good eggs. Each egg sold individually in the store is about 300 to 500yen ($2.50-$4.50) so I was very happy to recieve this egg when I realized why they were giving it to me. I had a great morning at Toyoshige and look forward to going back for the Sports Day in September. I was supposed to go to Tokyo that weekend but there is no way I'd miss their day!

The Junior High school is going to be different because most of the children are at "that" stage when they are ackward and hormonal and its much different than the Elementary school. The best thing for me to do is get adjusted to it and try to make them more comfortable with me. They are very nice kids and smile a lot but I want them to try talking to me a little bit more. They did some practicing today for their School Fesitval on Sept 14 , which was my alternate weekend in Tokyo but it doesn't look like that's doable either. The JH 3rd grade is singing "Hallelujah" at the Fesitval. They sound very very good. Beautiful voices only diction of course is off and at this point I just listen. The way to make a good impression is not to come in and critique so I don't. I will do my self introduction for the JH 3rd grade students on Friday so that will be my first day of teaching them. That will be interesting.

Tomorrow I go to Shoji Elementary school, I'll have to modify my lesson some, but that should be fun. I just hope they get the no pork thing down cause I'm not trying to mess with it.

August 26, 2002
Tonight Mizuki and I went to the Yoshida Himatsuri. Which is also called the Fujiyoshida Fire Festival. They carried these huge and heavy shrines down the street to this community center and then put them down there. One was of Fuji and one was supposed to house the goddess who protects the mountain. Then after these men, about a hundred or so to carry two big shrines drop the shrines off at the center the they go up and down the street for about 20 blocks (i'm not exaggerating) and light bonfires on wood piles in the middle of the street. Its fantastic to watch. Up and down the streets are also many many booths with different food vendors from squid and octopus on a stick to beef, pig and chicken. They had candied apples and chocolate covered bananas, cotton candy, and some other stick like candy substance. There was a traditional praying person and some Taiko drumming and women dressed in Yukata and my favorite the little girls dressed in Yukata. I took so random shots of Japanese little girls standing in awe looking cute or whatever. We had a really good time. Mizuki and I had a few Japanese lessons too. I am going to her school tomorrow for my first real lesson. I've been at the Junior High since Friday but I won't have a formal lesson there until this coming Friday. At Toyoshige Elementary (where I'm going tomorrow) they are going to have a Welcome Assembly for me. I really like the atmosphere of the elementary schools so far because the teachers seem to want to talk more than they do at the JH. They are really busy at the JH so they pretty much stick to themselves. I think tomorrow will be fun!

I found a digital camera that I want. Saturday before I bought my guitar I did some looking around for cameras and I found 3 I liked. I wrote them down and came home to check them out on the net. This one Canon has a great zoom and looks like it takes very clear pictures. They even have some samples in the store. So I have to keep my eye on that one. I'm narrowing it down, but with a purchase like that you can't just go out and buy any old thing.

My days are getting so much better and things are getting much clearer for me. I like it here now that I'm finally settling in. A got a box from my mom today. It was a prepacked box but she put a card inside for me. That was a surprise but made me quite happy as well. This box had some more slacks and winter sleep pants and thick socks which I really needed because it is getting colder here at night now.

Like Scarface said, "Today was a good day"

August 24, 2002
I bought a guitar today! I'm very excited about it. I'd been saying since I got here that I was going to start studying but now it is truly a reality. Its a nice one too, its black and red instead of the classic yellow color I love it. Here's a picture.

While I was out shopping Erica called me and told me that she was going to go to Tokyo to party tonight. Another JET friend of ours Monique had been telling us for weeks about clubs up there that she wanted to go to and we really haven't done much except explore our own cities since we've been here so we decided to throw caution to the wind and got to Tokyo. I left home at about 7:55pm and
the journey began from there...I got to the train station and sought out a parking lot. It didn't have any prices posted but it was not right next to the station I still had to walk some so I figured it wouldn't be that outrageous. Once I got to the station and bought my ticket (cost 2210yen for the actual fare and 1210Yen to ride the limited express train which only has 3 stops before Tokyo = 3420Yen), I had just missed the 8:21 train so I had to wait for the 9:07. I finally arrived in Shibuya, Tokyo around 11pm. I'm glad the clubs are pretty lienent about what you wear because if I had worn anything but jeans I would have been very uncomfortable on my trip out there.

I met up with Monique and her friend Rudy. We had plans to meet up with some more of Monique's friends and with Erica so we waited around and watched people. I swear, I have never seen that many people in a city just walking around at 11pm at night before in my life. I have been to Essence Festival in New Orleans. I've also been in Manhatten during New Year's Eve and I promise there were still more people out there last night than anywhere else I've ever been. There were people coming from EVERYWHERE they had vendors in the streets and I'm sure they make a pretty penny. They had Japanese Dreadmen and I even saw these 3 Japanese Dreads, putting wax and rolling someones hair trying to help his hair lock it was wild. I mean one dude had dreads he could sit on and had some of them bunched up in the cap he was wearing. I saw a girl in Starbucks (yes they do have Starbucks all over) who I swear looked like Beyonce! She was darker than me and had bright blond braids in her hair. She had on all this funny eye make-up but I had to double take and make sure some of those girls weren't really black. I need to start making some money braiding hair while ya playin!

Anyway to make an even longer story shorter (too late), we got the whole crew together at about 12:15 and took taxi's to this spot not far from there which was a Regge club. It cost 2500yen to get in but that covered two drinks once you got inside. One of the bartenders had a straight up fro and of course Erica asked him if it was real and if she could touch it. He took off his visor and let her see it was real and let her touch it. I touched it too, and it felt just like wool. I let him feel mine so he could see what a real fro felt like. Once we got to the dance floor I was completely in awe. You had Japanese folks with the long chains and Hip-Hop style baseball caps on, some had the long multicolored skirts on with tanks who were dancing like they were straight off the boat from Jamaica and the one that killed
me was this guy who was dresssed rather Mexicanish with a poncho on and this huge sombrero like hat only it was like the huge ones you might hang on your wall, and he was wearing it in the club. The Japanese are also real heavy on smoking and there isn't a lot of weed here so they just mix different types of tobacco until they get something that simulates weed for them or gives them another type of high. The Japanese Mexican guy had this cigar that was I promise, the length of my forearm. He was just a danger to be around on the dance floor. Either you get knocked around by the hat or burned by the cigar. They played some really old songs and some newer ones too, but only a few hip hop ones thrown in here or there. I think some of the locals were getting a little pissed with Monique, Erica, and I but its all good. If I were them I'd hate me too.(smile)

We left there and went to Roppongi which is another extremely busy club district in Tokyo. We stopped on the way to the next club at this Turkish restaurant and had chicken and rice. There was also a very attractive black man in there who I was trying to give the eye but its hard when youare in a big group. It was actually pretty good and also funny to see Turkish people saying the typical (Irashaimase!) and greeting us in Japanese. We went to this club called 911 which for me doesn't have very many pleasant connotations so I kind wasn't feeling it off jumpbut the bouncers there were Nigerians. And they kept telling is how beautiful it was to be black and how beautiful we were. One guy even assured us that he had been in Japan for 6 years and never had sex with a Japanese woman. Only because he loved Black women so much and because of the butt thing. Japanese women don't have any butt was his claim. I had to break it down that not all Black women have "junk in their trunk" either, but it was all in fun and they were really cool. We went down there and it was wack and they were playing this techno/backstreet boys mess that I know I didn't want to make my head hurt so some of us left and sought out another place to party. We found this club called Wall Street that shocked the crap out of us...I walked in the door and the first thing you see is this scantily clothes Japanese woman dancing on the bar, then you look further down and there are more. The music was like this latin type pace with J-Lo's song "Let's get Loud" if you can call that Latin. The music started to get better, but it left a bad taste in everyone's mouth the shock we experienced upon entry and every time you would look in the direction of the bar. So we left there in search of yet another club. By this time its about 4:30 and the sky is starting to lighten up. E and I just walked up and down and met some military men that didn't want to be label as military men because they are known for starting trouble. But when you walk around in a pack of five and all of you are buff out of this world, we're going to pretty much know what it is that you really do.

The night was winding up and the trains started running again at 5 so shortly thereafter we made our way to the train station. On our way to the station we picked up a stray Turkish guy who would not leave me alone. E and I were talking and saying bye and he was standing there waiting for me. All I wanted was to be left alone, so I kindly cussed him out and English and in Japanese and he was like I don't understand, I was like "Yes you do, yes you do" he started laughing and finally walked away, but we E and I went our separate ways he was standing on the other side of the entry just starring at us. I'm glad he wasn't on my train.

I bought a subway ticket (210Yen) to take me from Roppongi to Shinjuku where I had to catch the train that goes to Yamanashi. The return fare was another 3420Yen and I had to wait from 6am when I arrived at the train stop til 7am when it actually left for home. I couldn't stay awake no matter how hard I tried so I got a good seat on a bench, put my purse in my lap, set the timer on my cell phone and leaned over on my knees and took a nap. I don't know if the beer and Turkish food weren't agreeing with me or if it was just that I knew I still had an hour and a half train ride home that was making me feel sick to my stomach when the I finally arrived. The seats are very roomy and comfortable on those limited express trains so that made things much better. I set the alarm again for a 8:15 and fell asleep! When I finally got to Kofu and to my car of course I had to pay the attendant and it was 2900yen. This was a very expensive night and I love Tokyo and all but there is much to be said for staying around Kamiku and enjoying the simplicities of life.

"Oh, what a night...doodoo..doodoo"

August 23, 2002
Today was my first day of school. I got to the Junior High at about 8:15, 15minutes prior to the time I was expected to arrive. Its very rude to be late in Japanese business places so I try to be on time eventhough it is not something I'm used to doing when it comes to work. But I had prepared for the first day of school for a long time so I didn't mind being ontime at all. I said my welcome speech that I used at the village office a few weeks ago with the staff and with the students when they got to school.

Before the actual opening ceremony the students arrive in the front hall, change shoes and we teachers stand in the front and greet them as they come in. Its actually very intimate and personal. I like it. So then we have the ceremony and the Principal makes a few speechs and the Vice Principal and a few of the students and myself. After I give my speech one of the students comes up and does a response to my speech. He is so cute and nervous that I tried to calm him down but he just kept taking these huge deep breaths in the microphone and the whole gym was laughing. He did a great job though but he just would not stop heaving!

After the ceremony they have clean-up period for about an hour where the whole school students and staff all pitch in to clean up the school and grounds. Its a great thing, working together and they play this really loud Japan Pop music over the loud speaker while they are cleaning! It was big fun, although they won't let me help them much. Since it was only a opening ceremony day the students left at 12pm and the teachers stayed until about 3:30. I didn't really feel like I was under much pressure because I've done my speech before so that wasn't such a big thing. I am supposed to be teaching classes next week so that is when I think the nervous is going to come in. The staff a Kamiku JH is very nice, but they are quiet to me because I don't speak Japanese just like I'm sure they think I'm quiet too because I don't say much around them. Its only because they can't understand me for the most part anyway.

School is going to be fine. I just need to get the students acustomed to me and how I do things.