Need a New Phone

This post diverges a bit from the usual purpose of this blog, but is also related to Japan.

When I came back to Japan in 2009 I decided to use the mobile phone I purchased in 2007 when I was a student here. It is a great phone, the Sharp 910SH. The model was actually released in August 2006. After using the phone for almost 2 full years and having it sit in a box for one year between each year, the battery has decided to give up. Now everytime a receive a call, send a text message or connect to the internet the phone shuts off. If it's plugged in, it works fine, and if I use an external battery pack it can send messages. I could buy a new battery for $40, or since I am not tied to a contract I could purchase a new phone. With smart phones on the market such as the HTC Desire and the new Apple iPhone 4, purchasing a new phone seems tempting.

The new iPhone 4 is selling like cocaine in Columbia, making it impossible to purchase one. Must be good right? This is where I look back at my trusty Sharp 910SH which is about 4 years old.

Apple markets FaceTime as one of the best new features of their phone. The ability to have a video call. So what?! My Sharp 910SH also has a front facing camera, which can call any other camera that has a screen over any 3G network in Japan. Sure beats apple's new "innovation" which only works over wi-fi.


FaceTime on 3G

I like having a nice camera on my phone. One that is good enough to replace a normal point and shoot. That way when I go out, I don't need to pack my phone and a camera into my pocket. The iPhone 4 has a 5MP camera with flash and can also record HD video. But wait a minute?

My Sharp 910SH also has a 5 MP camera with a flash (farther from the lens resulting in a better picture) AND it also has a 3x OPTICAL zoom. Something the new iPhone 4 doesn't have, nor the HTC Desire. Hmm, I thought camera technology was suppose to be advancing. People are excited about a technology released only a few days ago that was available, and better, 4 years ago! Maybe the the "4" in iPhone 4 stands for 4 year old technology, and the Desire means you will desire more. If you want an example of images from my phone, just look at 90% of the pictures on my blog. Granted, my 910SH can't record HD video. =(


5MP with flash


3x optical zoom

Oh and internet. I can connect to the internet. But to be honest, the Sharp 910SH can't provide the experience a modern smart phone can. It can view normal PC web pages, but the formatting is off. Nonetheless Japan has a mobile version of almost any website.


Yahoo Japan Mobile

Comparing the HTC Desire to the iPhone 4 though, at least you can view Adobe Flash websites on the Desire. Apple has boycotted Flashplayer saying that it isn't good and the new standard will be HTML 5. Too bad consumers can't choose how to use their products when it comes to Apple. WHO CARES! Flash is used now! Every browser will support HTML 5. Nobody likes a N. Korean dictatorship, unless your the one following Dear Leader! It really makes me think Apple is better at developing marketing techniques than it is technology. Especially since Japanese are lining up just as much as their American counterparts, for a phone offering less for more money.

I was really looking forward to the new Apple iPhone 4. There are many good applications, but now after it's release and price tag that offers me only a pinch more hardware than my current 4 year old phone, it isn't worth it. I guess I will be going for the HTC Desire or upgrade to another normal Japanese cellphone which seems smarter than a "smart phone."

Rainy season

The last two days have been a break in the rainy weather of tsuyu. About 2 more weeks until rainy season will come to a close.

I've been pretty busy these last couple weeks. Doing lots of speaking tests with my 3rd year students, since the mid-term is here. Today I also visited two of my elementary schools. Out of four classes, only one was bad. Especially when a kid somehow pulled out a 7" blade resembling some kind of ninja gardening tool. The petting of the blade was a bit disturbing. But I just looked at him like if he didn't put it away it was going through his skull. I think somehow he was allowed to have it since it was just in a plastic bag hanging at the side of his desk. Besides this semi-shocking experience, the class had disruptive students per usual.

And finally, my sanctuary has been compromised. I've seen students pass in front of my house on the way to school, and I know they saw me. Then a couple weeks ago, there were four first grade girls waiting in the park across from my house, and they decided to ambush me with questions about Justin Beiber. They know from talking to me in school that I basically think he is a terrible singer. But somehow they try to still talk to me about him and other pop stars on the same level. And now, it is about twice a week at my front door!! I try to be nice, and of course enjoy that they try many times to use the English they have learned, which I encourage. But sometimes it can be a bit much. I felt bad today since they caught me when I already had one foot in my door, and decided to just wave and say goodbye. Believe me it is hard when there are three little smiling girls running up to you screaming your name like you are a rock-star while carrying their ipod filled with Justin Beiber. It is almost like kicking a small kitten out of a doorway.

Now only if this happened with women somewhere between the ages of 20 and 28...

Life's a song

Yesterday my school had a chorus contest. All the classes at school, totaling 11, competed against each other singing various songs. It was a great diversion from the normal mundane day. Listening to students sing for 8 hours passes much faster than reading Yahoo News and Wikipedia for 6 hours.

Contest

Today was not a special day. I only taught one class, two of them were cancelled, and basically surfed the internet reading up on two smart phones, the new Apple iphone 4 or the HTC desire. Next week the iphone 4 will be coming to Japan, and I am in need of a new phone since my current one decided to stop doing all the things that phones do best.

Thinking about this though, I question my job. I am here for another year. I get paid well. I live in a foreign country. My job isn't hard, in my opinion. I am very glad I have signed on for another year, because I still haven't experienced everything I want to yet. Plus my life outside of school is pretty damn amazing!

But back to work. I question, am I a good ALT? Do my co-workers think I am lazy? After all, I just surf the internet, study Japanese, or read a book for a better half of my day and get paid for it. I don't participate in the "cleaning time," or get involved with club activities. Granted I have never been assigned anything to clean, and never really "invited" to go to a club activity. Could I be more pro-active in my school? The more I think about it, the more the answer is YES! I could be!

The thing about being an ALT is. You arrive in a foreign country and then are shown a desk in a staffroom at some school. You are disorientated from JET lag, culture difference and a new language. Nobody really tells you what to do. You just sit there. You REALLY wish you could be doing something, but you just keep sitting there because you really don't know where everyone else is anyway. For one month, there are really no students in the school.

You design your self intro lesson. Then you find yourself just struggling to find out what the plan is for the next class because you don't know when you can talk to your team teaching partner. You really want to be involved. This goes on for about four months. Adrift in an unfamiliar place, not sure where your going or what you should be doing.

Then after four months, the situation doesn't change. But you get use to it. You get use to reading Yahoo News until you have a headache. Staring at a Japanese text book day dreaming about the weekend. Basically, you get used to being lazy and doing nothing.

Then sometime in April or May you start getting more work. Japan seems to make a little more sense, and the teachers try to talk to you about something once and a while. But it has almost been a year and still you haven't joined students in their clubs or tried to force your way into cleaning duties. Why should you? When the clock hits 4PM it is time to go home and do some more pointless crap, like check your email and facebook because your work blocks it.

Somehow this seems like an utter waste to me! What could I be doing at work to make my job more fulfilling and to make my co-workers appreciate me, or ALT's in general? I always tell myself, I am gonna go to the Kendo club today and watch it for an hour or so. But sitting in my desk for 2 hours doing nothing waiting for club time to roll around, makes me just want to escape from school faster than Houdini.

Only 1 more year! Is that really enough? I hear horror stories of foreign English teachers in the private sector, if I ever choose to relocated within Japan. I know JET does give the best benefits as far as 20 paid holidays a year, subsidized national health insurance, and helps cut threw a lot of the Japanese bureaucratic tape.

If I go back to the U.S. will I enjoy it? I know there are things I will REALLY miss about Japan. Can I get a job that pays as well without having to work crazy amounts of hours? Good thing I have about 7 more months until I really have to start thinking about it. Unfortunately, time flies fast.

The dryer part of June

As the rainy season descends upon mid June with full force, the last couple weeks have been sunny and warm. With the weather warming up, I am also warming up to my small town of Hino.

Since returning from India, I have been busy visiting elementary schools, making English picture dictionaries for 200 students, making friends, drinking coffee and watching movies on a bed sheet.

In May, the next day I returned from India actually, I met a girl named Ayumi through a mutual friend. In June I made her and a friend Mexican tacos. Turns out that she is pretty cool and knows a lot of other young people that live in my town. Within the last week I have met about ten 26 year old Japanese people who live in my town! We have been to Kyoto to eat Okinawan food and go to a club named World where DJ Taku Takahashi from m-flo was playing. It was pretty amazing, except that I don't actually remember hearing Takahashi play. I remember seeing him enter the club, but never remember him on stage. Either way, the DJ that was spinning was pretty damn amazing!


Taku Takahashi

Besides this, in my very own town in the middle of nowhere above the Hino Damn, we set up a projector and watched a concert DVD. Something unique to countryside living. In the city you would probably be dealing with the police about noise pollution complaints.

One thing is for certain! I am beyond excited to have similar aged friends in my town. On Tuesday we plan on watching some people play futsal.

I was also invited by one of the part time teachers at Hino Junior High School to watch her play the koto. So I watched for a couple hours although I left early since most things traditionally Japanese seem to be dragged out extremely long, which can lead me to get extremely bored.

I also revisited a coffee shop in my town for the second time called Ren-Rou. I've most likely now been to every cafe in Hino, and have recently decided that Ren-Rou is my favorite. They don't have amazing or cheap coffee, but for Hino it is the best! Also the environment is relaxing and the music that is usually played is also pretty good. The owner seems like a friendly guy and the cafe seems like a place that I may become a regular customer of. Not to mention, it helps support local business.


The business card of a caffeine dealer.

Rugby

On May 29th, 30th and 31st I went to Tokushima prefecture to participate in a touch rugby tournament. I almost backed out of the tournament because I was running very low on cash due to my trip to India and the 22,000 yen price tag was a bit high to play a game I had completely no experience playing. It turned out I was already confirmed, which I didn't think I was, so I basically had no choice but to pay the fee and compete. I was more or less looking forward to finally landing on the Japanese island of Shikoku which would complete one of my goals of going to the 4 main large islands of Japan.

The name of our team was the Biwako Basselopes. Biwako is the lake in Shiga, and the largest in Japan. A Basselope is some kind of fictional animal, that I think we created, which is a cross between a bass and a antelope. Utterly ridiculous, and perfectly perfect!


Biwako Basselopes' cheer.

Overall the games were pretty good. And although I was on the B team, considered to be less skilled than our A team, we won more matches! Overall we won 2, lost 2, and tied our last game. Not bad considering many of our players have never played rugby before. I am not a real good competitive team sports player. I guess I just never have my "head in the game." I usually think people care too much about something that means absolutely nothing. I mean there is very little risk in your own life. I guess I just am not one for fame and so the idea of glory in this case means little to me. People pretend they are at war. Thankfully, my team mates seemed to have the idea of fun a couple of notches above demolition.


Everyone wants white lemons.


Forming defense.

In the end, meeting people from all around Japan was what I enjoyed the best. I met some really great people with all kinds of interests, and hopefully made some friends along the way. Even if great distances separate us in the future.


New friend from Seattle, WA.

It's elementary

Back in Japan with no more personal holidays, it's time for a JET rant. I was welcomed back to India with a new internet filter, which makes it impossible to check email, facebook, online banking, student loan websites and even my own blog. Basically anything that would be interesting or personal for me to do in my down time is impossible. Even some work related websites are inaccessible. But I was mainly thinking about how my long days at work with very little to do would be even longer if all I could read was wikipedia. However, since I have been back from India I have been extremely busy.

My schedule has been full with my normal classes and special education classes. I also have been doing many elementary school visits. Usually I like going to elementary schools. I do more "teaching" than I normally do in junior high school where I normally just read and repeat. The days usually go by quicker, but they are much more high energy. However the new fifth graders, who I did not teach last year, are high voltage.

Overall they aren't bad. But the bad ones are extra loud and rude. Of course it only seems to be the boys. They like to shout out English words such as, "sex, penis, dick, etc.," in the middle of class. Or when practicing pronunciation, just shout out incoherent words as loud as they can. But this isn't the icing on the cake. The lack of respect shown towards me by saying things such as, "Oh big, penis big?" Followed by a grab to answer their question is a little over the top.

Somehow this is the characteristics of almost all the 5th year classes I teach. I teach multiple classes in five different elementary schools. Seriously, I wonder where this particular generation picked up their dirty English and bad manners. It isn't like they are good at English because they still don't know how to answer, "How's the weather today?" Needless to say, trying to teach a class with disruptive and rude students that you are unable to kick out, because in Japan it is actually against the law to remove a child from a classroom because they would not receive 'education'" is very draining. Teaching five of these classes at two different schools in one day is almost enough to make me go home and down a bottle of vodka.

I think the idea of keeping disruptive students in the classroom so they have an equal opportunity to learn is bullshit. One, give them an education in manners. If they can't behave they they should be punished, instead of allowed to rule over the classroom and create an environment counteractive to learning. I think allowing a student to continue to disrupt a class is the wrong kind of educating. It lets them know they are safe to misbehave, as long as they are in a classroom. Pretty pointless.

Granted, I wish I could make my lessons more interesting. But I am told just to show up and follow the plan the school has already decided. When I ask, do you have materials such as cards, etc. the answer is "yes," and I go in thinking I will not be supplying anything else besides my presence. Then I find the only materials I have are a chalk board, chalk, and my presence. Great! The teacher doesn't have any idea either. So an hour of relay games, key word games and anything else that only an imagination and a poorly prepared teacher can do. Thankfully this only seems to happen at 2 out of my 5 elementary schools.

I was surprised at one of my tiny mountain elementary school visits though. The principle comes up to me, and speaks to me in fluent English. I find out he has lived in Kenya for the last 3 years. Very interesting! Especially since this is the second Japanese person I have met within the last 4 days who has been to Kenya. Not to mention, this guy looked like maybe he was half Kenyan, or maybe it was just his African English accent. It is also great to speak to Japanese people with some perspective outside of their secluded cultural bubble once and a while. Unfortunately, since his English was actually good, when he decided to sit through one of these terrible English classes I felt like a complete idiot.

In the end, life still keeps moving forward until the end.