Regional Sites and Mailing Lists

If you are part of the JET Program, you are probably aware of the robust and cohesive communities JETs tend to form. In each region, older JETs train the newbies, helping them accustom to Japan by introducing local events and facilities.

Through generations of JETs, fantastic and comprehensive regional websites, wikis, and mailing lists come together. And usually, the managers of these websites and mailing lists welcome anyone in the local community to participate and make use of the information--not just JETs.

Some of the best events I've attended in Japan were ones I learned about by being involved in local JET mailing lists--even though I'm not a JET. As a student, I found seats on a dirt cheap tour package to Ise Jinguu and, later, I even found my first job in Japan thanks to mailing list posts that arrived in my inbox.

If you don't take advantage of this kind of resource already, I highly recommend looking into it. People regularly post free or cheap items in moving sales, cars for sale (usually a good deal, but not always), upcoming events, local Japanese language lessons, and all sorts of useful information. You can ask for advice about local gyms or even find buddies for a hiking trip or a weekend night on the town.

A partial list of groups and mailing lists sorted by region is available at jetwit.com, and another, slightly different list is available at the bottom of this Ajet.net page.
If you don't see a list for your region here, start by checking out the Facebook page. Post on the wall and ask if there is a regional mailing list. Most of the lists are run through Yahoo! Groups or Google Groups. Explain you are foreign and living in the area, and more likely than not you will be welcomed to the group.

For others of you in central Japan:
Gifujets Yahoo! Mailing List
naganojet Yahoo! Mailing List 

Alternatively, you can search for a group in your area by typing in keywords on the main Yahoo! Groups page.

Accommodation: Couch Surfing

If you are on a very tight budget and can't afford the other budget accommodation options (Love Hotels, Capsule Hotels, sleeping in Internet Cafes and Youth Hostels) or just looking to meet new people then you may want to consider Couch Surfing.

CS is a project where people around the world list themselves as free places to stay for visitors. Through the site you can contact them and see if it's alright for you to visit on specific dates and stay for X amount of time.

There are loads of people in Japan offering this. 1200+ in Tokyo alone.

A few good friends of ours tried CS across Japan. They had mixed things to say. The first guy they stayed with was an American ex-pat who treated them like family. He showed them the sites of Tokyo like it was his job, paid for meals out etc. Sounds great. The second person, however, was so bad that they left almost immediately and stayed the night in an internet cafe instead. Apparently she had a couple of dogs who lived in awful conditions and were kicked around the house. The place stank, too. Well, that's a 50/50 result. Better than the odds at Pachinko. People have usually been rated by other users, so I'd check that first.

I haven't tried it, so I can't give you my opinion, but if you have the guts to stay with a complete stranger then Japan is surely one of the safest places to do so. Incidentally, you can also meet people on the site just for a cup of coffee and tourism advice.

If you do or have tried it, let us know about your experience in the comments box below.

Other posts in this series:

• Love Hotels
• Sleeping in Internet Cafes
• Capsule Hotels
• Youth Hostels
• Couch Surfing
• Budget Hotels

Worksheet Sunday: Mine and His (First grade JHS)

Those of you teaching the JHS New Crown textbook at the moment will be on or approaching using personal pronouns and possessives (I, my, me, you, your, you, he, his, him, she, her, her).

My lovely girlfriend has again made a great lesson plan. On Friday I had a fantastic lesson with my students on this, so I thought I'd share the activity that we did together.

The lesson had three parts and took 35-40 minutes.

The first was a worksheet. Click here to view in Google Documents but bear in mind that the Google previews are invariably awful, but if you download it and open in word the formatting should be fine.

I introduced the sheet as the activity before "The Game", and had them individually work on the sentences after I had explained the concept with several examples on the board.

If it isn't clear enough, the idea is to change the personal pronoun in parentheses into the correct form to make a good sentence.

When they'd finished I got them to volunteer to read out the answers one by one.

The next part was the classic game of Karuta. If you don't know the game, it is a fun and easy way of using ten minutes in class that can be played with any set of vocab cards. This time I played it with nine groups of three or four students (push the desks together). Each group had a set of the 12 words on the sheet (I wrote them out on bits of card, but here is a sheet for printing and cutting) which they spread out across the desks. I shouted out the words one at a time ("you" and "her" were double bonuses) and they had to grab the right card as quickly as possible. Spread the words out to build tension.

At the end of that I got the students with the most cards in each group to stand up and have a janken battle. The winner was Class Champion (!!!!!!!!!!!!).

The third part also used the karuta cards, so don't collect them in just yet, and don't break up the groups. During the karuta game I had the Japanese teacher write up 10 sentences on the board, just like on the sheet (with the key word missing). I had made cards (big enough for all the class to see) of "you", "I", "he" and "she". I shuffled the cards before presenting the class one at random for each sentence. When I held up the card they had to find the corresponding form in their karuta cards and bring it to me as fast as possible. For example, for the sentence "I like _____ bike." I held up "He". They had to find the "his" card and bring it to me asap.

The kids went crazy at this point and almost trampled me to death. It was hard, but I picked the first five students with the correct answer and gave them numbers from one to five. Then they went to the Japanese teacher at the blackboard who had a list of the nine groups. They told her their number and she awarded them 5 points for number 1, 4 for number 2 etc.

Beware: I got punched in the balls three times during this activity! Also note that you should move around the class for each word so that no group has an advantage.

At the end of that, add up the scores and give the winning team a big round of applause.

New Year, New Teachers

Those of you working as an Assistant English Teacher in Japan are probably familiar with the mysterious shifting of personnel every year. Particularly in March and April (but also sometimes in September and October), schools in Japan throw big "going-away" and "welcome" parties to commemorate the changing personnel.

These personnel changes are the public equivalent of company transfers. Here is a decoded policy message from a ken-level public board of education about these transfers for your enjoyment (...?) and to help us all understand the Japanese reasoning behind this revolving workplace employment.
(Sections truncated from the original document abound, but are not marked.)

平成23年度義務教育関係諸学校教育職員等人事異動方針
2011 Personnel Transfer Policy of Educators, etc. at Compulsory Education Institutions

教職員の異動について
Regarding the Personnel Transfer of Educators

(1) Regarding the Personnel Transfer of Principals and Vice-Principals
Transfers are carried out from a whole-prefecture perspective according to the needs of individual cities, towns, and villages. Suitable individuals are placed in suitable locations without regard for school size, location, or length of employment. In principle, these individuals must reside in the city or town where they are placed and focus their attention on educational efforts in the area. New principals and vice-principals are selected from across the prefecture; they are chosen from among individuals who possess the competency to serve in that role, according to the prefectural board's future vision and local boards' recommendations.

(2) Regarding the Personnel Transfer of General Educators
Suitable individuals are placed in suitable locations in order for them to gain educational experience in a variety of school types and sizes. Transfers within the same region are to be avoided in favor of transfers over a wide area, including different blocks (regional sets of schools). However, care will be taken to lessen the instances of employees living separate from family.

In loosely related news, this prefecture is also starting a junior high and high school employee exchange program, wherein exceptionally talented, licensed junior high teachers can work for a period of time as a high school instructor.

Learning Japanese: Common Pronoun Mistakes

A long time ago I read an article about pronouns in Japanese written by the Yale Anime Society.
Fortunately, a quick Google search taught me that today there are many better resources about pronoun usage in the Japanese language (Wikipedia and Wa-pedia for starters).

But, when I read that Yale article, it really stuck with me. I thought it was the definitive guide to pronouns in Japanese and even made detailed flashcards for myself to remember who says what pronoun when. I'd taken the article completely out of its intended context (anime) and thought I'd meet people in real life using sessha or atai. Fortunately, observation of Japanese friends over time let me realize that what I'd been taught was horribly incomplete. I generally agree with the content of the Wikipedia and Wa-pedia articles linked above, but it's still, really, a long list of words from which only a handful are ever realistically used. For what it's worth, here are a few of my observations about Japanese pronouns.

私 (watashi) -
This is the starting place of Japanese pronouns. Brand new (native English speaker) students of Japanese pick this word up on their first day of class and subsequently pound it into the ground.
WATASHI wa Amerika-jin desu. WATASHI wa suki desu. WATASHI wa toire ni ikitai desu.
WATASHI. WATASHI. WATASHI. Even when the sentence doesn't have anything to do with you, or me, or even people at all, it somehow always begins with "watashi wa."
But, as a language learner myself, I can appreciate that. When you start out learning a new language, you're trying really hard to understand how words fit together, and a natural place to turn is your extant trove of information about your own language. "I" sentences are extremely common in English and consequently easy to build and use in early Japanese practice. With enough time and practice, beginners start to realize that Japanese people don't start sentences with watashi very often, and in fact they profusely leave out topics and subjects and all those things our English teacher told us are absolutely essential to a complete sentence.
So, to those of you mangling through your first few months of Japanese, spouting a "watashi" with the consistency of Old Faithful, I tip my hat. You're doing what it takes to get fluent, without fear or embarrassment. Keep it up.

僕 (boku) -
Boku is where I draw the line. This word is the ultimate pitfall for foreign guys in Japan. While I may fidget when hearing absolute newbies repeat "watashi wa" like a broken record (before remembering how brave they really are), seeing some big American guy with passable Japanese referring to himself as "boku" actually causes my stomach to churn.
Boku gets introduced by Japanese girlfriends to their boyfriends or Japanese professors to their students as a "cool" alternative to watashi. The thing they forgot to mention is: It's actually not cool. At all.
Just take a look at the other people using boku. Their single most common feature is a lack of pubic hair. That's the associated image. Guys who use boku after their early teens sound perpetually stuck in childhood; they failed to grow up and are thus woefully unprepared to be a productive, interactive member of society.
Your 40-year-old female coworker and the girls you practice "English conversation" with will clap their hands and tell you your Japanese is great when you start using boku. But, the word on their minds isn't "cool" or "dependable." It's "adorable." Like a penguin at the zoo. Everyone fawns over the penguin, but no one takes it seriously.
So, don't be a boku person. Please. Save your boss and your (male) friends the restrained shudder of embarrassment they feel every time you break that word out.

俺 (ore) -
So, what do manly men use? When talking among male friends, ore is pretty common. Just don't use it towards your boss or a stranger.
Ore gets shared usage among street punks and Japanese guys who think they are cooler than they really are, but if your dress, mannerisms, and the rest of your speech are up to snuff, referring to yourself as ore will bring you a quick-witted, wordly air.

私 (watashi) -
Yeah, that's right. It's watashi. Again. Not only is this the starting place of Japanese pronouns, it's the ending place, too. When you get out to the working world, writing self-introductions for job interviews and engaging in obligatory enkai parties with supervisors and bosses, watashi is really the only acceptable, professional-sounding pronoun. I think a lot of foreign learners migrate to boku (or ore) because they're afraid watashi makes their Japanese sound too elementary. But, as you progress in other aspects of the language and learn to express yourself clearly, I think reverting back to watashi, at least in your professional life, sends a subtle indication that you really know what those textbook lessons about "maintaining appropriate distance" in Japanese relations are all about.

Weird School Lunches

A couple months ago, "school lunch" was all the rage on Japanese TV. A guy named Hideo Makuuchi published a book called "Weird School Lunches," which featured terrible food combinations served up to elementary and junior high school students in different parts of Japan. (School lunch in Japan is mandatory in most public schools; kids cannot choose what they eat or bring their own lunch from home.)

O, dashing prince!

You can check out all the odd combinations with glossy, full-color photos in the book on Amazon; a smattering of the funny ones are listed here:

• White Bread + Rice Cakes
• Brown Sugar Bread and Miso Soup
• Toast with Jam and Vinegared Pork
• Steamed Strawberry Bread and Kitsune Udon
• Curry Tofu Stirfry and Chocolate Deep-Fried Bread
• Curry Udon and an American Hotdog
• Yakisoba and a Donut

To be fair, when interviewed, the nutrition experts at offending school districts defended their position, saying they are required by the national government to provide a certain number of calories and amount of vitamins and minerals in each lunch. But, Japanese kids are (in my opinion) some of the pickiest eaters in the world. So, the nutrition experts continued, its necessary to choose high calorie foods kids are willing to eat and pair them with a smattering of other stuff to meet the vitamin requirements.

Unfortunately, if they had spent any time at an actual school, they'd know that half of the students trade food during lunch hour so they only have to eat what they like. Vegetables and fruit are all too often pawned off to the one kid in the corner "who'll eat anything." Like rising generations in most other first-world countries, Japanese kids are losing self-discipline fast. And teachers are in no rush to stop the trend; lawsuits against teachers are on the rise, too, for actions as simple as verbally reprimanding a misbehaving student.

Worksheet Sunday: All-Purpose "Anything OK" Escape-Method #2: Ultra Snail Salt Chopstick Attack

As a follow-up to the fantastic Typhoon Game which I published a little while ago, here's a very similar game which can be used when you feel typhooned out but still need a filler game.

I recommend you try the Typhoon, or at least read its description first to help you better understand this post.

It's basically the same game but with chopsticks instead of cards, snails instead of houses, and only one word per chopstick. Because there's only one word, students can be very creative, but you must also make sure you get the aim of the class clear at the start.

Again, it can last from 15-20 minutes up to the entire class. Here's how to make it:

Go to the 100yen shop (or any shop, really) and buy one of those bags of 25+ sets of disposable chopsticks. Separate all the individual sticks and write a verb on the flat end. I have two sets - one of all the first grade verbs, and one of all the second. I use these for revision at the start of second and third grades. However, a more organised person than me would have some mid-year verbs learned since the start of the year to throw in at a later date - mark the bottom of the stick or something to differentiate them.

In place of the typhoon cards I have what I call "black salt sticks". You could just as easily make them white and just call them salt. All they are is a chopstick coloured black at the end. These do the same job as the typhoon cards (kill all the team's snails). try to have about 1 salt stick to every 3 verb sticks.

I also have a couple of "magic salt attack sticks" in each set, which are coloured differently and wipe out the snails of another team (chosen by the team which draws it).

Separate the chopsticks between you and the Japanese teacher and hold them by the flat ends. One student from each of the groups comes and ask from "One chopstick please" and take it back to the group. They must make a sentence using that verb (tell them what grammar forms you want them to use) and come back to tell you it. Reward them with one, two or three dice depending on how much you like the sentence. The points on the dice equal points on the board. Nice points equals one snail, which is draw in nine steps like this:


Get the kids to draw these on the board as they aquire points. The winning team is the one with the most surviving snails at the end of the game.

If you try this game, or have any suggestions or comments please stick them in the comments box.

Driving Schools in Japan

As a follow-on to my Getting a Japanese driving licence post, here are some details of English-speaking driving schools:

School options
I used Koyama driving school in Nerima, Tokyo. Koyama has four or five schools in Tokyo, all with very polite and friendly English instructors. I was able to complete the course in 18 days, although there was a wait of an extra three days between stage one and stage two for the provisional licence paperwork to be processed. I paid a grand total of just under 400,000yen for the privilege, plus accommodation. Lesson hours for stage one were limited to four or five a day, while stage two allows you to take up to nine.

Another somewhat cheaper option is Chubu Nippon Driver's School in Nagoya area. It's about 50,000yen less, but a lot smaller than Koyama and doesn't actually do the testing on site - rather, someone will come with you (from the school) and sit in the back of the test car at the test centre.

Because of the size, it can be hard to do the whole course intensely (which is why I chose not to go with them), especially at a busy time of year (holidays).

• All the schools I've seen also offer motorcycle, truck and industrial machinery qualifications.
• A licence from one of the basic car courses will qualify you to drive a moped/scooter.

If you know of any other schools, post them in the comments and I'll add them.

Property Deposits

Japanese landlords are infamous for requiring huge amounts of deposit money in the form of 敷金 (shikikin) and 礼金 (reikin). Plenty of posts have been written about this on the web, but here is a run-down in case you aren't familiar with real estate deposit practices in Japan:

Shikikin (敷金) is like a Western-style deposit: You pay money up-front, usually calculated based on the monthly rent of the apartment. "No deposit" apartments are becoming more popular, but 1 or 2 months' worth of shikikin is still standard as a downpayment, and for prime real estate it is possible an agent will ask for 6 months' of rent or more as shikikin. In theory, you get this money back when you move out of the apartment, minus the cost of damages incurred during your stay. However, stingy landlords are very good at finding damage where none exists. It is safer to assume you will not be getting your shikikin back at the end of your stay; if any money does make it back to you, you'll then be pleasantly surprised.

Shikikin is also sometimes called 保証金 (hoshoukin), which is closer to the Western term "deposit."

Reikin (礼金) is sometimes called "key money," but this term can be misleading. Reikin is, ultimately, just a gift to the agent for introducing you to and setting you up in the apartment. It usually equates to about 1 or 2 months' rent. But, again, it's becoming popular for agents to advertise "No reikin" properties in order to draw in more customers. Reikin is never refundable.

On top of shikikin and reikin, it is likely you'll also be asked to pay chuukai tesuuryou (仲介手数料), fire insurance (火災保険), and guarantor insurance (保証会社保険料), which we've explained details of in another article.

Related:
Housing Guide

Living as a Couple in Japan

Just a quick entry to draw your attention to something you may not have considered:

Whether your partner is Japanese or gaijin, you might come across some problems living together prior to marriage in some rural areas of Japan.

When I moved here with my fellow English-jin woman we were told to lie to the Board of Education about our marital status. "Say you're engaged" said our boss. And that's no small deal. In Japan that's basically unofficial marriage. Japanese women are not interested in a long engagement.

We did what she advised because she said we may not be able to live together if we didn't. It was very strange 9 months later when we actually did get engaged and had to keep it a secret from the BoE. They did find out though, and just looked a bit confused. It's possible our (now fired) boss was just a bit batty.

Nevertheless, living together is a big deal here. A lot (a lot) of people don't leave home until they are married, and then move straight into the marital home (or husband's family-home). Not that anyone will consider you a proper person for a long time anyway, but beware of getting funny looks for your living situation.

Also, if you're living in kyoinjutaku (teacher's housing), some backwards countryside BoEs might not let you live together (as such) and give you two houses.

If you live in a big city, virtually none of this applies.

If you have any experience of this sort of thing, please let us know in the comments box below.

Worksheet Sunday: Gesture -ing (First Grade JHS 12-13yo)

This is an activity to practice using the (verb)ing form.

Those of you using New Crown will find this in Chapter 7.

This game will fill about 30 minutes, and is best for groups of four students (more is okay). The second part will last a further 10 minutes or so.

Part one is the meat of the lesson, part two is optional.

Part one - gesturing

• Print and cut out these gesture cards (save a copy from the preview for correct formatting). You need enough to give each student three,
• The cards contain a short statement using verb+ing, e.g. "Playing soccer",
• In groups (4 to 6 students), one student stands and gestures their action,
• Other students in the group must put their hands up. The first person to do so is chosen by the gesturing students,
• They must ask "Are you playing soccer?" etc,
• If they guess right, they get to keep the action card (presented with a "Here you are"),
• Continue round the group in a clockwise direction,
• The winner is the student with the most action cards when time is up.

Part two

• Karuta
• Groups keep their action cards, and place them face up on the desks (all desks should face into one another to make a square/rectangle),
• You shout out the words from your list (the 21 action cards), and students have to be the first to grab them off the desks,
• Winner has the most cards at the end,
• You can do this a few times if you like.

Cleaning Time in School

Before I could finish my post on school lunches the other day I had to break for cleaning time.

Cleaning is a pain. Not because of my laziness, but because it's almost pointless. There are two stages - sweeping and wiping. The sweeping is fine, if not the most efficient way of removing the dust that gathers everywhere in Japan (with a broom that slowly disintegrates with daily use). The wiping, however, is a joke.

It's not limited only to schools. Companies, too, will break from their work schedule to dunk a filthy cloth in filthy water and then push it across a filthy floor (you've probably seen in anime students pushing a cloth along the floor at speed).

Sure, no extra people have to be employed for what only takes 15 minutes of group effort, but surely a country as advanced as this one could come up with a better system. I force the sweeping to take extra long (damnit, I will gather the most dust in history today, even if most of it is bits of my broom) just to postpone the stinkhand that my stagnant cloth gives me.

Actually, recently I've managed to avoid the wiping all together due to the kids currently on duty in the teacher's room. 50% of my time is spent forcing them to clean properly. That's life!

Don't forget to don your tenegui; a pointless bandanna. Not sure why. It's the Japanese way.




As always, comments are welcome.