ELEMENTARY SCHOOL- Do you like apples?

Karatsu Castle in June

Alright, obviously this lesson follows “I like apples.”

Review the vocabulary and key phrase from the previous lesson. Then, introduce “Do you like apples?”

I like to do this by picking a flashcard (例dog) and saying, “I like dogs. Do you like dogs?” Emphasize the meaning with a gesture to the class; obviously be a bit slower and bigger with your gesturing but you don’t have to go nuts. Or you can, they enjoy it.

Anyway, some of them might understand and raise their hands to communicate that they like dogs, too. Ask the HRT and make sure they say, “Yes, I do” regardless of what they actually think because otherwise it confuses things. Practice, “Yes, I do” then pick another flashcard and ask the HRT who will then answer, “No, I don’t.” Practice both answers and have some volunteers answer some “Do you like~” questions for stickers!

To enforce the question as well as the answer, you could play the line game again and whack out the old Hi, Friends DVD for some listening activities.

A game I find the students enjoy is BONGO. Not Bingo. BONGO!!!!

Here is my version of Bongo: DoyoulikeBONGO

So the pictures are already on the grid. Each student chooses a line, vertical, horizontal or diagonal. They want to check off all the pictures in their chosen line to achieve a BONGO! Ha! Sorry…

So they play janken, winner asks, “Do you like blah blah?” which will be a picture from their chosen line. If the loser doesn’t have that same picture in their line, they answer, “No, I don’t”. But, if they do they can answer “Yes, I do” and also check the picture off their line. Makes it a little more win win and also means they’ll be saying “No, I don’t” more which is a little harder to remember.

Of course, this is just for fun and doesn’t really put the phrase in context. Interview games are great for this phrase- you can have the students ‘gather data’ then look at the results together.

To make it into a janken game again, here is another worksheet that can be good fun, especially if you want a bit of a break: Ilikeboardgames

The students play in pairs and the aim is to be the first to reach the finish. Play janken. The winner asks “Do you like soccer?” which is the first space on the board. If the loser answers “Yes, I do” the winner draws a circle. If the loser answers, “No, I don’t” the winner draws a cross. Whatever the answer, the next time the winner wins janken they can ask, ” Do you like baseball?” which is the second space on the board. So it’s an interview-janken-race game.

If I don’t make any sense and you want a better explanation or have any questions, feel free to comment!

Emily x

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL- I like apples

Karatsu Kunchi 2013

The Hi, Friends DVDs have copies of all the flashcards you will need for each chapter so don’t worry too much about looking up your own- if you would rather have different sets though the students love it when you draw them yourself, get them to draw them or there are some good sites for free downloads such as MES English.

So, practice the new words (fruits, animals, food and sports) first. Then introduce “I like apples” by talking and showing what you like; they will pick it up fairly quickly. It’s good to have the HRT give an example as well. Practice the phrase with some volunteers and then play the Keyword Game to hammer it in.

Two other games I like to do for this topic are:

1. Line Race– it’s a good idea before you start to have the students pick their favourite thing from the flash cards. Then have a column stand up for a demonstration. The student at the front says, “I like blah blah” to the student behind them. That student turns to the student behind them and says, “I like blah blah” all the way to the back. When the last student says, “I like blah blah” they all sit down. It’s a race to see which column can sit down first.
   If there are uneven numbers of students in each column, try to spread them out so it’s even or have the front student of a shorter column run to the back and say their sentence again then crouch down.
   To start them off, I say, “I like blah blah” to the first students.
   To keep them moving, have the students shuffle around at the end of each round.
   It’s hard to keep an eye on who was the first in bigger classes so try to select a top three and give them claps and maybe avoid giving stickers.
2. Memory game– get the students into lunch groups. The students decide an order within their groups. Student 1 starts, “I like A.” The second student says, “I like A and B.” The third student says, “I like A, B and C,” etc. This teaches the students ‘and’ and gets them to use more of the vocabulary instead of just their favourite flash card.

So the Japanese don’t really use plurals for stuff. “I like a dog” and “I like dogs” are said the same way, “犬が好き” (ペラペラJapanese speakers, please correct me if that’s incorrect!!) so the concept of ‘s’ is new to them. Some people feel it might be less daunting for the students if they just skip over it in younger classes but… it’s not as hard for fifth graders to grasp as you might think.

I just explain it as it’s not just this apple I like, I like any apple I eat so with fruits we need to use ‘s’. Even if they don’t fully understand that, they get, “One apple, no ‘s’, two apples, ‘s’ yes!” When practicing the new words for this topic, I practice singular and plural with them and they do get it even if they don’t always remember to use it when speaking themselves. For sports and the food/ drink names, I just say we don’t need to use ‘s’ because it’s a group name and they’re cool with it. So even though I can’t give them a technical or full explanation of the grammar, I found a way to teach them it anyway and it works pretty well and I think it really gives them an advantage when relearning everything in JHS.

Emily x

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL- Counting from 1-20

The flower of Nanayama

I made a worksheet based on some of the activities from the Hi, Friends textbook: introducing numbers

Practice 1-10. They usually know these so it won’t take long. There was a counting song on the old textbook CD (Eigo Noto) that is fun to use as it involves gestures. Once they get the hang of it, try challenging them to sing it faster and faster then really slowly.

The left side of the worksheet is a very simple janken game that they will love and want to play again (hence the two grids). They find a partner, play janken and if they win they write a circle and if they lose they write a cross. They play janken 10 times then sit down once they’ve finished. Use the phrase “How many circles/ crosses?” when having them call out their totals.

Practice 11-20. This will take a while- I really try to work on the ‘n’ sound and make sure they get 12 and 20 right (for some reason they usually get those confused the most!). Practice them a lot. Try counting from 1-20 as a group then have them count one by one.

Next, play the janken pyramid bingo game on the worksheet. They write numbers at random from 1-20, they find a partner and janken, winner gets to choose and say the number they want to circle. If the loser has the same number, they get to circle it, too, then usually I will give stickers to the first 10 students who fill in their entire pyramid. Yay!

That’ll probably be more than enough for one lesson.

Emily x

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL- How are you?

Ogi lantern festival, Saga

I like to teach them six responses with flashcards:

How are you?

1. I’m fine/good! (they usually translate this as 元気 so “good” or “great” might be better than “fine”.)
2. I’m happy!
3. I’m sad.
4. I’m angry!
5. I’m sleepy.
6. I’m hungry!

**For new words, apparently the maximum they can easily remember is 9 but if you’re teaching fruits or colors they usually already know a lot of the words so you can practice a lot more.**

We practice the phrases by throwing Samurai-chan around then play the keyword game.

THE KEYWORD GAME

Pair game. Students turn their tables so they are facing each other with one eraser between them.

From the words you have just practiced, put a star or marker on one of the flashcards. This flashcard is the keyword.

Have the students put their hands on their heads and get them to repeat after you:

“I’m fine.”        “I’m fine!” *clap clap*

“I’m angry.”    “I’m angry!” *clap clap*

When you say the keyword (e.g. “I’m happy!”) the students don’t have to repeat, they just lunge for the eraser! The student who gets the eraser receives one point!

Change the keyword and repeat!

**If you want there to be clear winners, play the keyword an odd number of times. If you have a confident class, get a student to do your part for a round and you can play against their partner.**

There are a few other activities I like to do including this BINGO game: How are you Bingo! Assign each student an emotion, they find a partner, play Rock, Paper, Scissors, winner asks the loser “How are you?” and the loser answers with their assigned emotion and the winner can write down the loser’s name on their worksheet. Aim is to see how many names they can get.

Emily x

Elementary School- cram time!

Children’s Day in Saga

For the first time on JET, I have felt the time limit. It never really worried me before but suddenly I have a whole textbook to get through and only 10 lessons to do it! Argh!

So, as we’re going to be bombing through the rest of the textbook, I wanted to make sure all my Year 5 are up to speed with what we have studied so far.

We have covered: self introductions, feelings, numbers (1-20), likes and dislikes, interviews and lots of cultural stuff (Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas etc) so for a review lesson, I put together some old games they have played before onto a worksheet and they completed each challenge in groups and it worked really well.

This is the worksheet: Mini Quiz- Yr5 review

And then there’s my Year 6. I was going to make a similar review game but they really are behind and also a little low level in English so I just want them to have high speed fun times until they graduate and have all the joy sucked out of them in JHS. I don’t know what happens over those two weeks between Year 6 and Year 7 but suddenly all the enthusiasm just vanishes.

Anyway, so I only just started “I want to go to Italy” at the beginning of this term so I have had to cram four lessons into two for each topic. *Should* be fine…

For I want to go to Italy, we played the interview game in the textbook and a janken bingo game with a world map worksheet which really interests the kids. They react well to the UK being in the centre and finding and colour coding all the countries we’ve studied. Then I gave each student a country, they played janken and the loser had to say “I want to go to *allotted country*” and the winner could check it off their sheet.

This is the bingo worksheet: Map and flash cards

Before, I’ve had them make quizzes and present their 行きたいcountry but there isn’t time this year, sadly 😦 Don’t know how I managed to lose track of time.

Anyway, yeah, just a brief check in and worksheet share!

Emily x

Self Introduction Lesson 2 – Elementary School

Karatsu Kunchi 2013

This is an extremely arrogant, “I’m an awesome ALT”, post, just to prepare you. It’s for any newbies who are a bit nervous about their first ES classes to show they have nothing to worry about- everything about you, the new teacher, will be the awesomest thing ever!

So yeah…

LESSON 2: THE GUESSING GAME

So I don’t really like talking at them very much but I want them to get to know me so I like to play this Betting Game with them.

I have the students get into their lunch groups and give them all a sheet of paper with questions on it. The questions are about me and my family and they have two options to choose from.

E.g. What’s my name?

A. Emily B. Doraemon

They choose which answer they think is correct as a group. If it is right, they get 10 points! Yay! If it’s wrong, they get minus -10!　さいやく！And it’s all fun and laughs and lots of screaming of, “A!!!!!” or, “B!!!!!”

NAME CARDS

On occasions, the guessing game has taken up the entire lesson but if I have time we make name cards. I usually give out one chart of hiragana to romaji per group and give them each a B5 piece of coloured paper to write their name on- writing in pencil first so I can check it then they can write it in pen and draw all over it.

In my second year as an ALT, I used to have them decorate their name cards with the stickers I gave them but now I like to give them passports that they can use as sticker books. They really like the idea of having a foreign passport- last year I only prepared British passports but this year I had time to draw and make the American one, too, so they had some variety.

NOTE: they like to choose which colour they make their name card from so maybe come up with a system where they come up in some sort of order. Maybe in the order of points from the betting game or just do “eenie meenie minie mo” I’ve found they really enjoy!

Emily x

Self Introduction Lesson 1 at Elementary School

Karatsu Kunchi 2013

This is an extremely arrogant, “I’m an awesome ALT”, post, just to prepare you. It’s for any newbies who are a bit nervous about their first ES classes to show they have nothing to worry about- everything about you, the new teacher, will be the awesomest thing ever!

So yeah…

LESSON 1: THE SELF INTRODUCTION CLASS

I really enjoy using the textbook Hi, Friends but I like to use it more as a guide for my lesson planning or as a way of introducing the topics that I then expand upon.

So! My first class with the fifth graders usually goes like this:

I come in, they scream hello at me, I smile and am very expressive when they talk to me but try not to say anything until class starts. Once we’ve bowed and everyone sits down I take a deep breath then bellow “BONJOUR!” and wave wildly. Hopefully, they will stare at me in utter confusion then laugh as I look worried and try and think of another word. “JAMBO!” I’ll try, to potentially the same response although some students may start to catch on. They all suddenly realise what I’m doing when I next try “NIHAO” and “ANNYEONGHASEYO”, stumble over “Kon… Kon… Nichiwa?” and eventually “HELLO!”. And then I give my self introduction.

“Hello! My name is Emily Jane Atkinson.” I write my name on the board, say it’s a bit long so add, “Just call me Emily,” as I underline my name.

“I’m 24 years old,” I say, flicking a two then a four up with my fingers. When they get it, I write it on the board.

“I’m from the UK.” As the UK has such a variety of names, I thought I might as well go for the shortest and easiest to read one although they usually don’t know it so I have them guess for a bit then maybe give them a hint like, “What’s USA?”

“America!” they cry.

“So how about the UK?”

“Russia!”

Eventually they get it and I write it on the board finishing with a cheerful “Nice to meet you”.

So then I explain that today we are going to practice meeting and greeting. I write A-san and B-san on the board and ask them what would they say when they first see each other. That’s easy, “Hello.” I write hello (even though they won’t be able to read it- it’s a nice guide for them later) for A and B. We then practice this initial greeting by throwing my mascot back and forth three times. They love my mascot (a round cat with a samurai helmet christened Samurai-chan) and I highly recommend getting one although don’t expect them to be careful with it. After three years, Samurai-chan is a little beat up.

So next! I ask them what would A and B ask each other if they’d just met for the first time? They may suggest “Nice to meet you” as that’s the typical pattern for a Japanese greeting so I say that’s good and write it but at the bottom of the board and ask for another idea.

They will suggest, “My name is _____”

It’s up to you whether you teach them the question and answer or just the answer. Just practicing “My name is _____” is easier as they tend to already know it but if you practice it with them a few times, “What’s your name?” isn’t particularly difficult for them either. I chuck the mascot to a few volunteers to practice then finish the greeting off with “Nice to meet you” and throw my mascot around some more.

Then we practice the entire dialogue together and maybe even split the class into A and B to really hammer it home.

GAME 1

Give them all a small piece of card (coloured or otherwise- just a scrap piece is fine though) and have them write their name in hiragana (if you can’t read kanji, like me!) or let them write it in English if they know how- if they do, they write it very proudly; it’s very cute!

Write one for yourself and the HRT (Home Room Teacher) can write one, too. You will quickly get to know your HRT and how much involvement or what sort of role they want to play within your classes so if they are particularly into it and on standby- use them for as many demonstrations as possible as it’s really good for the students to see a Japanese person using English. Also, if you want to only use English in your class then it’s good to have them there to either give a Japanese explanation when the kids are stuck or try and explain it in a way they know their class will understand; don’t worry or get bothered by it, they know what they’re doing!

NOTE: the HRT may not know a lot of English so you might want to run over the dialogues with them before class. Anyway, I’m writing my lesson plans like it’s mostly all on you as the ALT but if you can, get that teacher as involved in your classes as possible.

Anyway, if you’ve got a willing teacher, demonstrate the dialogue with them in front of the students then swap name cards. You then become the teacher and the teacher becomes you so when you next introduce yourself you say, “My name is Tokunaga Sensei!” for example. A friend of mine recommended this idea to me and it’s great fun. I have the students running around introducing themselves and swapping cards for a few minutes then have them sit back down and have a few volunteers give self introductions.

“Hello. My name is ______” -everyone laughs- ”Nice to meet you.”

Done! Then, I go back to the greetings I used at the beginning of class. We think about what countries they come from (very briefly) and I show them flags if they don’t know. We also practice a few greetings together.

Then, I erase the question “What’s your name?” (no problem if you decided against teaching it) and add “I’m from ______” and work out what it means with them and practice it with the mascot.

GAME 2

I give each student a card with a country and the country’s greeting on it (again, a game from a friend). Instead of saying “Hello” they say the greeting on the card (written in katakana) and instead of “I’m from Japan” they say the country on their card.

This is where I complicate things- it works but if you think it’s too “busy” then you obviously don’t have to use it.

I give each student a “nice to meet you sign sheet”. To show them what to do, I demonstrate the dialogue with the HRT, swap papers with them, we sign each other’s paper and swap back. Have a loopy, quick signature ready to flaw the kids (I also have them choose their favourite colour pen to write in)!

I then challenge them to see how many names they can get under a time limit, we check, clap and/or give out stickers and that’s a wrap!

I really think it’s a good way to start out with very lively speaking activities so they are introduced to your pattern of speaking and can feel confident about starting out as you and they will be surprised at what they already know (“hello”, “my name is” and “nice to meet you” being some examples!) and you’re not overwhelming them with loads of information about yourself and your country in a stream of English.

Some people argue that it is really important to use lots of Japanese in Elementary School classes. I partly agree as it’s useful when they’re really stuck to drop in the odd keyword but I am very much on the use-lots-of-English side. Even explanations. Remember that gesturing is a big part of communication, too and it is pretty amazing how much they can understand without translation.

 Emily x

Okinawa 2013

For Golden Week this year Lily and I decided to go to Okinawa. Golden Week is three consecutive national holidays on the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th of May: Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day and Children’s Day. On top of that, my birthday is also a Japanese national holiday (you’re welcome) on the 29^th April which means if you take the three days in between as 年休 (paid leave) or if they fall on a weekend, you get a nice little holiday in the middle of term before the last leg to summer.

This year, my birthday was on a Monday so I took Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as 年休 and as the 5^th was a Sunday, they did a Happy Monday thing and moved the national holiday to Monday 6^th. Which meant we had nine days off for three days 年休!

Although it is a nice time to travel for JETs, it is also a nice time to travel for everyone else in Japan! Those hard workers who never ever ever use their 年休 suddenly find themselves three days of holiday they have no choice but to relax in (actually, I say that, but chatting with my JTEs this week revealed that they often schedule school sports games over those three days so they usually go with the students somewhere to watch them play). So places like Kyoto and Osaka are suddenly bursting with people.

That’s what Lily and I expected when we booked a four day trip to Ishigaki Island, a tropical and well-known island south of Okinawa. We also had waning hopes for the weather as my iPhone promised heavy rain and storms. Just like last year, our schedule of beaches beaches and beaches would probably need a rethink.

Ishigaki is about three hours south by plane from Fukuoka with a transfer in Naha City. It is, like most places in Japan, famous for its beef and very certain that its beef is in fact the very best of all and it is not to be argued with regarding this.

When we arrived, we were picked up by the car rental company (Jネットレンタル) we had booked through a travel agency and they gave us a dinky silver Nissan March for our trip.

Our hotel was by the ferry terminal that was the only method of transport we could use to get to the smaller islands surrounding Ishigaki. It was early afternoon by the time we checked in at the グランティア Hotel so we began our search for an avocado burger…

Okinawa is actually famous for its pork and soba noodles, taco rice and this vegetable called goya that they put in everything and I don’tknowwhyittastessoweird. But Lily had been fancying a burger since before we left Karatsu and when we saw an Ishigaki beef burger topped with avocado, we knew that was the lunch for us.

Except it wasn’t because the restaurant was closed. T_T

So we had the pork soba thing that was very tasty. They had an original kind of vinegar they wanted us to try that was dericious and the salt and pepper gave the slightly-too-fatty pork a nice flavour.

By then the sky had cleared so we rushed off to a nearby beach to enjoy potentially the only sun we would get for the duration of the trip. Fusaki Beach is apparently known as a good spot to view sunsets and we certainly weren’t disappointed. Watching the sun set and listening to a shamisen band perform for an outdoor BBQ place next to us really made us excited to be on holiday. The first few weeks since starting back at work in April are always a little strange in Japan due to all the staff and teacher changes so it was nice to get away and forget about our responsibilities as cultural representatives and looking busy in the teachers’ room while everyone rushes around us trying to do their jobs… Ahem.

After a tower of sashimi for dinner at an izakaya in town, we went back to the hotel wishing for the weather to be beaming sunshine the next day and when we woke up to my horrid alarm, we were in luck! It was beautiful sunshine outside and it was my birthday and we were going to an island and enjoying nature, dammit!

The ferry port is a five~ten minute walk from our hotel and we made it just in time for the ferry we wanted to take to Iriomote Island, about forty minutes away.

Here are some Wiki facts about Iriomote before you read and trust everything I’m about to write!

Our plan was to spend the morning there on a river cruise then an hour hike through the jungle to look at a pretty waterfall then spend the rest of the day on a beach. But ferry times and bus times and cruise times made us realise that wasn’t going to happen.

When we arrived at Iriomote there was a big sign showing off the islands special wild cat that hides in the jungle and comes out at night. There are only about 100 of them, even the islanders rarely see them and they were all I could think about. Their rounded ears, their “stop taking pictures of me or I’ll bite your face off” faces, their stubby tails- arrrrgggghhhh, adorable!!!

We took a bus out to the river cruise place, realised we were stuck on the island for the day, realised we weren’t really prepared to be stuck there for a day and asked one of the boat drivers whether there was a corner shop or restaurant nearby.

He said, “Do you have a car?”

We said, “Er… no.”

He said, “Alright, I’ll take you somewhere.”

Driven by hunger (it was 10am after all) and all caution cast aside because we were desperate and on holiday in Japan, we followed him to his car.

“As it’s early,” he said, “Let’s check out some of the beaches,” and proceeded to give us our own personal tour of the island! He pointed out a small bird called shiroharakiuna in Japanese that is the Iriomote cat’s favourite prey and proudly told us that Ishigaki beef is the best beef in all of Japan. He plays the shamisen and has travelled around Europe playing with his band but is especially fond of Indonesia where he goes on holiday every year.

The first beach we went to was Hoshizuna Beach. He walked up to the shoreline and told us to press our hands into the sand. We did so and looked at the sand on our palms and the grains were shapes of tiny stars! This is like one of two beaches or something where you can find that kind of sand. Lily bought me a small bottle of it and we went to the next beach to look at the lilies growing on the cliff face before driving off to the restaurant he owns! And while we ate lunch he played his shamisen and gave us free pineapple as a birthday present.

I mean, ignoring the news, riots and violent crime for a second, Britain has a lot of kind, gentlemanly people. We help each other out, get prams onto trains etc. When I went to Texas in March, I was blown away by the genuine friendliness of everyone towards each other, hugging each other, saying “Good morning” like they actually really wanted you to have a good morning. But in Japan, it’s like they don’t realise there can be a limit to how much you help people out. I mean, he was at work and he just left to entertain a pair of helpless looking tourists. I mean OK, he got some business out of it when we went to his restaurant but the entire time we were with him, I could see him wracking his brain for more information to tell us about Iriomote and more stories about his Europe tours. I really haven’t experienced this kind of effort anywhere else.

He dropped us back to the river cruise place and we jumped onto the boat that we had entirely to ourselves! This meant we got some great views of the mangrove around us and I could sing Just around the River Bend as loudly as I wanted. I might have seen a spear-crested eagle but it was too far away to tell but we certainly got our fill of the beautiful mangrove trees with their limb-like roots and leaves brushing the surface of the water.

It was now midday and we had a two hour hike there and back before getting the boat back in time for the bus in time for the afternoon ferry. The aim was to see two big waterfalls somewhere in the jungle but I think we managed to miss the first one somehow and by the time we reached the second waterfall we were worried about the time so we took a quick photo of it and dove back into the undergrowth again.

The path was very clear but quite wild and hazardous by Japanese standards. Little lizards with bright blue tails kept dashing out in front of us and the roots of trees had been left to grow over the path and sometimes it was even muddy! Reminded me of home- except the lizards. We were walking with a steep slope to our right side when we noticed a scatter of leaves and mud. We both glanced down and there was an Iriomote cat outlined against a tree! It was only there for a few seconds then dashed off again but yayyyyy! We saw one! In the middle of the day! Exciting!

OK, obviously not the wild cat…

Once we made it back to our hotel, we changed and found an American style Deli and Lily finally got her chance to have a burger. With avocado. And it was really good; we decided to go there for lunch the next day.

We got up a little earlier the next day and checked the times for the ferries and set off to Takitome Island, about ten minutes away from Ishigaki. This was clearly a tourist hotspot, probably because it is much closer to Ishigaki and a little easier to get around on as it is only nine miles wide.

Takitome is home to mostly families and the elderly. They have an Elementary and a Junior High School but the High School students have to take the ferry every day to go to school on Ishigaki. Takitome is actually a huge chunk of coral, there are no businesses there (except the tourist businesses like offering water buffalo cart rides and renting flippers and head gear for snorkeling), no police, and they have to get the fresh water pumped over from Ishigaki. It is flat with a few rises but no hills or mountains, no rivers but absolutely stunning beaches and a godswood that no one is allowed to enter. They have a festival for the god that lives there twice a year to offer thanks for looking after them.

We of course went on a water buffalo cart tour of the village and I learnt most of this from the driver and the family who rode with us as the husband could speak pretty much perfect English (also, they were incidentally from Fukuoka). Our water buffalo was a six year from Hokkaido called Akahachi. As he carted us lazily down the perfect white-sanded streets, the driver picked up his shamisen and played a song for us, stopping every now and then to bellow, “Akahachiiii!” to stop the buffalo from eating grass off the hedgerow or to make him walk again. The white-sanded streets of Takitome are famous in Okinawa and each household is responsible for keeping their own strip of the road clean and neat.

When the tour was finished, the family from Fukuoka recommended that we rent bikes and cycle to one of the nearby beaches. We went to Kondai Beach and it was beautiful! So blue!

We attempted to swim but although it was nice and warm, there was a strong current that wouldn’t let us swim out but rather sideways and then to the shore several yards away from our belongings. So we lay down and got ourselves sunbu— tanned instead.

After stopping at our favourite Deli for lunch, we drove forty minutes northwest over Ishigaki to track down the glass boat company that we had free tickets for.

It was pretty neat seeing the fish so clearly the chasms between the coral fade into a murky blue darkness. And the glass boat captains were very friendly, too. But I don’t think it would have been worth it if we had to pay. I dunno, just go snorkeling. The guy for all his friendliness also just seemed to be rushing it and kept zooming over everything like he wanted us to get back to shore as soon as possible.

It was a very pretty bay though and we bought drinks before setting off to find another beach.

A Shisa shop we found near the beach- I don’t really talk about Shisa in this post but they are awesome

I’ve completely forgotten the name of it but apparently it’s considered the most beautiful beach on Ishigaki but it was very pebbly and maybe it was because the tide was out but there was nowhere to swim as the shallows were full of corals. I guess it was beautiful though. Surrounded by ragged mountains, pretty light from the sunset, a nice wide kind of bay area.

We decided to see whether we could eat at the BBQ place we had seen the first evening we arrived on Ishigaki, with the sunset and the band playing.

Our whole trip was just one good fortune after another. When we arrived we watched yet another beautiful sunset and then were seated with a good view of the beach and grilled up a feast of pork and beef as the band played into the evening. Such a perfect way to end the trip. We were really quite miserable the next day and the weather was miserable, too; horrid cold rain sluicing down on us as well as a sharp wind.

This is quite a long post even by my standards and I definitely haven’t written about everything there was to write about (you might be quite relieved about that!) but it was a well-needed and very fun break away from work and I have definitely been feeling the benefits of it since coming back to work this week. So even if your coworkers don’t use their 年休, don’t feel pressured into not using yours; even if our job isn’t exactly nonstop, living in a foreign country can sometimes be tiring so allow yourself to take a break every now and again.

Anyway, big thanks to Lily for organising pretty much everything we did in Okinawa and for being a great, patient, travel companion. 😀

Lily blogged about our trip, too!

Emily x

S-A-G-A Saga!

Three Minute Trip To Saga

It‘s just dawned on me that there aren’t very many blogs about Saga on WordPress. And a bunch of new people who just found out, “I’m going where?!” are desperately searching for any information about this unknown rugged prefecture.

And then you all found my blog with all my recent rants about depression and self loathing… Ah.

So first, Saga in is the northwest of Kyushu, the big southern island of Japan. There are around 50 JETs living here but we are fairly spread out so you could be coming to an area with maybe 4 or 5 JETs nearby or somewhere a little more isolated.

But we do have a train! Yay! It goes between Saga City and Karatsu City (the two “major” cities of the prefecture). It’s a cutie!

I don’t know a lot about all the areas of Saga, but if any of you want to contact me with questions please feel free to leave a comment although I recommend you try to be patient a little while longer (I know, I feel ya!) as your predecessors, DRs, PAs etc will have a ton of accurate and thorough information they are preparing to send out.

If you have glanced over my previous posts, I live in Karatsu City and I really love it. It is more a collection of rural towns under one name than a city but it’s a lovely place with lovely people. We are very proud of our beaches in Karatsu. I live in Karatsu proper with five other JETs about a five/ten minute walk from the nearest beach. Saga JETs like to put on a Welcome Beach Party when the new guys come in August so you’ve got that to look forward to!

Karatsu is also proud of its pottery (karatsu-yaki… You can decide what you think about it when you see it…) and its annual festival that I’ve written about several times:

https://brainontracks.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/karatsu-kunchi-2010-day-1/

https://brainontracks.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/karatsu-kunchi-2010-day-2/

https://brainontracks.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/karatsu-kunchi-2010-day-3/

https://brainontracks.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/catch-up-november/

https://brainontracks.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/karatsu-kunchi-article/

It’s not something to be missed!

Saga is a rural area, even its cities. It is not like the electric dreams we are filled with when we think of Tokyo. We are right next to Fukuoka Prefecture though and Fukuoka City is pretty good for satisfying those who are used to or were hoping for a more urban lifestyle here. There is also a huge JET community there that we regularly get together with.

If you are coming to Karatsu or somewhere that isn’t Saga City, then I recommend you think carefully about whether to get a car here. Public transport really isn’t bad (in Karatsu there are buses and/or the train to all the scattered towns in the area) but it would make things easier for you. Saying that, I don’t have a car and get along just fine!

Finally, here are bunch of links to other Saga blogs and a video blog from last year that my next door neighbour, Stu made:

http://sagaventure.blogspot.jp/

http://angelasouthee.blogspot.com

Stu in Japan

Emily

Nice to meet you!

Whenever I meet an Elementary School class for the first time, I always use this sheet. The students find a partner, introduce themselves and sign their partner’s sheet. I get involved, too and use coloured pens because they love watching one write a big loopy signature really really fast! Then they count up the number of names they got and you can either give stickers to the ones with the most names or just clap a lot! 😀

Nice to meet you sign sheet

Emily x