Kawasaki Recycled

Some things you just never forget, for example a thirty minute walk to a recycle shop that I had done many, many times before in my past life.

I'm a sucker for a junk shop when the stuff here is actually pretty cool, unlike the same back home.  Today I went to one of my favourites in Kawasaki. I thankfully wasn't too tempted to buy anything, but as always there were quite a few interesting bits and pieces.

I think being in Japan I might actually lose the ten kilos I gained from being back in a typical Italian household. My feet ached way too soon, and the humidity was just enough to make me feel a little uncomfortable and sticky.

After a nice two hour browse and walk I was back in Lazona tired and hungry. A doughnut and a meat patty burger fixed that.

On the other side of Lazona, in the More's building, is another Off store, and to my surprise they have expanded selling much the same stuff as the place I just came back from! I saw some interesting Mickey watches that I kind of regret not getting. They had the same Danboard I just bought yesterday, a few hundred yen cheaper *sad face*

Lazona has probably one of the best, reasonably priced supermarket, Sanwa. Along with some alcohol and stuff to make Mexican, we picked up some discounted Haagen Daaz limited-flavoured icecream - banana milk, custard and Sicilian lemon pie. Should be interesting.

Outside the apartment the neighbours have left out a lot of cardboard. Very handy for me. I found a box big enough to send a, um, lightsaber back home. Happy days!

Lights on (Nakano) Broadway

I'm never good at getting up early.

Today was actually sunnier than yesterday. A good day to have gone to the beach. I haven't really planned what I really want to do this holiday. Most things have already been done and doing things the second time round doesn't have that thrill of the new feeling.

Because I couldn't think of anything better to do, we went to Nakano Broadway. The place where the REAL otaku go for their geeky kicks.

It was around lunchtime so we had icecream at Daily Chico on the basement floor. It's quite famous for their massive eight flavour cones for 480 yen. I settled for the medium size four flavour for 330 yen. (small is 250 yen). From top to bottom I got fizzy candy, grape, banana and green tea. I liked the banana best. The other flavours weren't particularly memorable. I think there is more effort in the colour than the flavour. She had a chocolate which actually tasted very chocolatey, but I don't think that's a real word. Just like last time I had a huge icecream headache, so recommended if you crave a big icecream fix.

While it satisfied our initial hunger urge I was still hungry so we followed that with a nikuman from a nearby eatery. Quite yummy that was too!

I've realized very quickly that I am quite unfit (and fatter) than I used to be. Walking around the floors of Nakano Broadway got me beat all too quickly.

Lots of hentai dolls to pique my natural curiosity. Resisted the Miku Hatsune dolls but broke my resistance with a Danboard (which is like I imagine Google Cardboard if it resembled vaguely human form. 30cm high I underestimated how big it was. Another thing that will make my packing harder than it needs to be. I wasn't expecting them to add the tax to the sticker price. Ga, foiled again!

I was previously thinking to go to Shinjuku afterwards but after walking around for quite a long time, that was not going to happen anymore.

Must Heart Zushi

I woke up somewhere between 730 and 8. Way too early for me on a holiday that's for sure. With the on/off rain that I saw on the weather forecast I'm thinking that days to go to the beach are numbered.

I plan to recreate as many of my good memories as possible, and probably the "goodest"memory of all were my day trips to Zushi beach.

Looking out the window the sky appeared clear, but by the time we left the apartment the overcast clouds were mocking and taunting me.

As the train was getting closer I saw that the streets were still wet from rain that must've fallen not long ago. My heart was sinking a little thinking this trip might be wasted.

My spirits lifted when we arrived on the sand. There were actually other people there! Not packed but still a lot of bathers and windsurfers. I wasted no time and immediately went into the water. It was quite windy but the water wasn't cold and I didn't want to ever get out.

Zushi apparently banned drinking alcohol (and loud music) on the beach a year or so ago, but I brought along two cans of chuhi. Nothing was going to get in the way of my memories.

On the way back we walked around Yokohama. I noticed here to a few things have changed. Funnily enough an old UFO catcher place closed down, and in the same building Ishibashi moved in! I saw a cool perspex strat that wanted me to buy it, and another Steinberger that wasn't too expensive, but my will is good for now.

We looked around Shibuya too. I checked out a few of my old haunts. For dinner we had some burritos from the newly opened Taco Bell in Dogenzaka. For some reason it sadly wasn't as good as the Taco Bell we had in Guam.

I was still a bit hungry so we walked a little further to another favourite sushi place where they make the BEST avocado maki. What's a real pain is this place is doing a dirty trick of listing the menu price without the tax. WTF! This isn't New York!

I think Japan is trying to give me new reasons to dislike the place again :(

Hello Shinjuku

In the morning I kind of woke up to a fairly strong earthquake centred around Tokyo Bay. I guess it's Japan's way of saying "ようこそ". Ga!

I was planning to meet up with some old colleagues so we decided to walk to Shinjuku to make it easy to meet them. Last night I thought the weather was not so bad, but today I could feel the humidity is still around. It was a rare beautiful and sunny day. If I wasn't going to meet up with the guys I would've went to the beach instead. Unfortunately both guys piked on me so it wasn't going to happen anyway.

While most things are much the same as they were, I was occasionally surprised to see whole new buildings suddenly sprung up. Most notably the south-west Shinjuku station building, and the new Toho cinema that replaced the old Koma theatre in Kabukicho. At the moment there is a Godzilla hanging off the top of it, but somehow I don't think that's a permanent fixture.

We went through a few of my favourite guitar shops. I saw a nice Ibanez PS120 Iceman. Even though it's a Chinese version it didn't look half bad. Gotta be strong while I'm here!

Finally we had sushi in Shinjuku. Oh it's SO good to taste real sushi again! You can see the shiny moisture on every piece and the price was more than reasonable. If I only came back to Tokyo just for this, it's already worth the trip.

Slight Return

I was waiting for the right time (and the right airfare) to come back to Japan. Early in the year I had heard on the last day that there were cheaper tickets. With little preparation I didn't have time to commit to a flight. Sadly I let that one  go.

In May the opportunity came up again. Jetstar are the cheapest, but they try their best to cut their fares by making it extra for checked bags and other non-nessities for example, food.

While my principle reason is to catch up with old friends, the other big reason is to bring back a whole lot of stuff I had to leave behind because I had run out of space in my luggage, and also ran out of time.

I had mixed fears of nerves and excitement. My strongest memories were the things that I really missed so I was hoping that I would be coming back with a refreshed and less cynical outlook of the place.

My flight left at 7 in the morning and I had only two hours of sleep. I didn't have much to pack. I bought a 2.7kg suitcase mainly to carry as much as possible on the return flight.

Jetstar asks for a two hour check-in, even though my first leg was a domestic flight to Cairns and then onwards to Tokyo. It wasn't really necessary. I practically checked in immediately. 

There was only a modest amount of people on the flight. Going to Cairns there were the obligatory "larrakins" (translation: d*ckheads) that made me embarrassed to call myself in the broad sense, Australian. Every other word was "fark" and they wouldn't STFU. I could even hear them over my headphones. Yes, that bad.

Transferring in Cairns was much worse. The line was larger. I was bursting for the bathroom, but I had to wait to check in. The new dreamliner aircraft looked nice and shiny, but I felt they tried their darndest to fit in as many extra seats as possible.

Unfortunately you had to pay for the in-flight movies, so I spent most of the flight listening to the Triple J Hot 100 which wasn't all that bad. My mother had made me four sandwiches, which were two sandwiches too many. Hopefully I'll lose the ten kilos I've gained since I had come back.

Customs in Narita took a long time as usual because foreigners are still treated like criminals having our fingerprints and photo taken. I hope Australia does the same thing. It just started my reminders of the 101 things I hate about Japan.

I made my way back to Yotsuya surprisingly easy and relatively quickly. I hoped to use the free wifi, but my iPhone kept sending me warnings of untrusted certificates for the wifi hotspots. Nevertheless I had a train map which made reminding me of the connections pretty easy. In an hour and a half I was back in very familiar territory.

Happy Endings Are Only In Movies

When I first started my blog I tried to use Jimmy IN Japan as my URL. Unfortunately back then someone else had first dibs on the name so I had to spell it "jimmynjapan". Even to this day that douche way back in 2004 only wrote one post to say he was testing it out and hasn't written since.

Still over time I've come to like my forced title. Not only could it have the generic meaning, but I guess if you said it fast enough it could read as Jimmy AND Japan.

In Japanese "sayonara" is a goodbye that is not often said in reality, but as a final goodbye meaning pretty much the end. That post was intended to be my swan song but I guess my readers, or at least a really persistent one is encouraging me to write on.

So as I sit in a cold sweat in total darkness contemplating my future I stare at that URL thinking what do I have left to write?

Even though I spent close to seven years in Japan I felt like I came back earlier than I really wanted to. My mission statement remains unfulfilled, and I don't think things have changed as I wishfully hoped. The people that asked when I was coming back are now noticeably absent, and some that I left behind in Japan, that at times made me feel forgotten tell me that I am missed!

After the Celta I didn't have trouble getting work. At first I had more offers than I expected. I actually worked at two schools simultaneously, but I am now only working for one. Without getting into too many details, from what I've found most schools are fairly similar. The main differences I've noticed are the choice of textbooks and facilities. Every school so far has only offered casual work and while I don't mind the pay at all, the security of knowing if my work will continue or be "on call" is a bit disconcerting.

I'm happy with the school I'm working for. The staff are really nice and the students are awesome. Speaking of students, there's quite a difference between teaching only Japanese students, and teaching a melting pot of various nationalities. Right now, I think I've finally found my feet but in the beginning it was a real challenge.

One of my greatest strengths is my rapport. I think it has really helped me out. In fact I feel like I have better rapport with foreigners than Australians! Every day makes me feel like I'm not in this country and on a semi-permanent vacation (kind of what Japan was) and for that I am thankful.

I miss Japan terribly for all the good things and I seem to have forgotten most of the bad. This won't be my last post but like everything in life it has to end sometime.

The Pain of CELTA

I waited a LONG time for it.

See, in Australia you need a TESOL or CELTA to be certified to teach at a language school here. If I decided to give up teaching, this of course wouldn't be necessary.

I decided on CELTA as it has a bit more clout than a TESOL certificate. I first applied at an institute in Melbourne as it was slightly cheaper, but I never got contacted back. Instead I went for the course offered at UQ in Brisbane.

I was hoping to be accepted for the April intake of the course, but unfortunately I had to wait until the 25th of August to start the course.

The application form has some grammar tasks and evidence of your written work. If this is accepted, you are offered an interview to see if you are suitable to do the course. Basically at the interview you are told about the course, and they will drill the word, "INTENSIVE". Also you'll be asked if you have anything that might be problematic during the course. At first I thought this strange but as I started, the reason for this "weeding out" of applicants became all so clear once the course commenced.

Once accepted they expect you to do a pre-course task (with an answer key here) to acclimatise you to the content of the course. Although you won't need to hand it in, it does provide a bit of primer to what you will learn.

The course can be taken 4 weeks full-time, or 12 weeks part-time. In the first week I REALLY wish I did the part-time course.

There are 12 trainees split into two groups for two (real) student groups. In my case the students were Upper-Intermediate and Pre-Intermediate. First two weeks you teach one level, and the last two it switched.

I was at university from 10am-6pm. Every day there is input (sessions of information learning), lesson planning and feedback. I had 8 teaching practices, and 4 assignments to complete. Each lesson plan took approximately four hours to prepare every night, and after a teaching practice was done I was expected to write a reflection how I thought the lesson went, to be critiqued by my tutor and peers.

What everybody, including myself wanted to know is "How hard is the CELTA?"

The content itself is not particularly difficult, but every day there is new information being thrown at you, lessons to give, prepare and reflect on, and assignments, that it does feel like juggling. One trainee dropped out after the second day. $3000, no refund. It's demanding for sure.

After the first week I cried. I failed my second teaching practice. There was a lot of pressure. I felt that if I failed the course, I would be failing not only that, but my seven years of teaching in Japan.

My head was buzzing into the second week. My sleeping patterns were totally screwed, and I just wanted it all to be over.. quickly.

By the third week I found my groove. I was better organised. I passed all my assignments. Only one I had to resubmit because I had silly mistakes. It was resubmitted in half an hour.

The tutors you have, make a huge difference. My tutor for the first two weeks was quite abrupt and seemed to dwell more on the negatives. He answered questions with questions and generally made me feel like he was setting me up to fail.

In contrast, the second tutor was much more sympathetic and approachable. In my (short) hindsight, I can see how the first tutor pushed me to do better with "tough love", but at the time I was a complete mess.

There are a few people that find the rigours of the course particularly difficult - us "oldies", trainees that had been teaching for a number of years already, and the emotionally fragile. So, basically me, me and me. If you're even mildly suicidal, I suggest not doing this course (or at least part-time). I did feel there were times like I was going to be pushed over the edge. REALLY.

So how else can I prepare for the CELTA, I hear you ask?

While grammar IS important to be a teacher, it wasn't as critical as one might think. There was a pre-grammar course available, but I decided to cheap it out with the free 5 hour grammar primer on Cambridge English Teacher. DO IT.

For a great grammar textbook get, Practical English Usage (Swan). It's a fantastic reference. While you don't really need to buy anything else, I'd personally HIGHLY recommend Classroom Management Techniques (Scrivener). I have a STRONG feeling, my tutor referred to it quite a bit, and classroom management was a key area I needed improving (for example, Teacher Talk Time).

You really want a step ahead to doing well in the course?

Pre-learn about PPP and PDP frameworks. Also REALLY get your head around, MCQs/CCQs (meaning/concept check questions). These are simple yes/no questions to make sure your students understand what you taught them. They seem deceptively simple, but are very challenging to get perfect. If you get these key areas, you'll be a step ahead.

So, should I have done this course before going to Japan? I think it gave me some great ideas, and has made me an (even) better teacher. It would've saved me this waiting time. To teach in Asia, CELTA isn't necessary, for pretty much anywhere else it's a prerequisite.

Last piece of advice is, make friends with your peers! I started a Facebook group, so we could all support each other. I initially felt isolated so it really helped.

I think that is all I can think of to say. If anyone has any questions or whatever, leave a comment :)

PEACE