Clara's Christmas Greeting

The Governor of Fukushima

Today, Yuhei Sato, Governor of Fukushima, visited Hisawa JHS. Governor Sato has only recently been voted into office (with 51% of the vote) after his predecessor resigned over allegations of accepting bribes during his 18 year tenure. The previous Governor, Eisaku Sato (no relation of Yuhei (I hope)), and his brother are accused of receiving a ¥170,000,000 bribe (nearly GBP 1 million) from a construction company involved in the building of hydro dams. I'm sure he'll also be be linked to other construction projects as the investigation continues.

Bribes and other fraudulent practices have long been a recognised, if unspoken, aspect of the Japanese construction industry for many years. It seems that the Japanese Government is trying to clean things up although many Government members have strong connections to the industry. The Japanese construction industry has been well covered in a book called 'Dogs and Demons' by Alex Kerr.

The main aim of the visit to Hisawa JHS was for the Governor to observe an online English class. He seemed impressed with the class although I have my own doubts about their usefulness. I'm a great believer in using technology in the classroom, but only when there are very real benefits. Everything that is done in these classes can be taught more effectively in a normal class. Being a natural cynic, I think someone is getting rich from this project (probably the old Governor). Still, it was nice to have the new Governor in school for a couple of hours and good to see all the newspaper reporters and TV crew taking an interest. Maybe I'll be on the front page tomorrow....

Bonnenkai - End of Year Party

It is now party season in Japan. These parties are called Bonnenkais - end of year parties. This year, I attended the Arakai JHS bonnenkai party. The food is always very traditional at these parties (mostly fish) and is made up of several small dishes, each with a different kind of food.

These parties cost about ¥15,000 (about 75 quid) and are paid for out of the teachers' club fund which each teacher pays into every month. The price includes food, alcohol, accommodation, and unlimited visits to the hotel onsen. This picture shows the standard food served at Japanese end of year parties. As you can see, there's a lot of fish.......

The Marumine Kanko Hotel is massive and is extremely busy at this time of year. It can accommodate about 800 guests and is furnished to a very high standard. ¥15,000 seems a very reasonable price to pay. I have heard from other foreigners in Japan that their work parties are terrible value. I guess I'm lucky to be in an area where the local hotels are plentiful and whose standards are high.

There are many school parties throughout the year in Japan. If I don't want to attend, I make some kind of excuse and feel no guilt about non attendance. However, I feel sorry for many of the Japanese teachers. I'm sure some of them would prefer to spend time with their friends or family. It seems impossible for many teachers to spend any time at home as they are often in school from 8am to 8pm. Most usually go to school on Saturdays as well. I also feel sorry for single teachers. If must be impossible for them to have a social life or find a spouse (outside of the world of teaching). I don't really understand why Japanese teachers are so willing to sacrifice their family life for their work life. Teachers in Japan seem to spend most of their time looking after other peoples children, instead of looking after their own.

After the first party, we went to the second party in a room reserved for karaoke. I was coerced into singing a couple of songs and had a fairly good time. At this party there was whisky and another Japanese spirit called shochu. As I'm not a drinker of spirits, I went to the bar and ordered a couple of bottles of beer. My individual decision to order beer probably caused a few teachers to have a sharp intake of breath, as being in Japan, decisions should be made as a group and not as an individual. However, I weighed up my options and decided to go it alone and order beer. It was either that or sitting in the karaoke room for 2 hours drinking oolong tea and listening to some bad karaoke.

After eating some noodles in the hotel noodle shop, we had a third party back in my hotel room on the 7th floor. Here the food was more suited to my tastes : pot noodles, crisps, nuts, beef jerky, and chocolate.

Next week should be fairly quiet at school although we do have a visit from the Governor of Fukushima. The Governor of Fukushima is Japan's equivalent of Jack McConnell. More about this later in the week.

Cooking Class

The cooking class went well. I was a little apprehensive that things would not work out, but in the end, it was all fine. About 16 students turned up and I think they were happy with the class and with the end result.

Today I taught the class how to make traditional Scottish shortbread. It's not all that difficult. In fact, it's extremely simple. Mix 190g of butter, 90g of fine brown sugar, and 235g of flour and divide this into 12 small balls. Flatten the balls and place in the oven at 170C for 25 minutes. Voila!!! Traditional Scottish shortbread, guaranteed to give the eater a cardiac arrest within seconds. I don't think I'll ever eat shortbread again, now I know how much butter and sugar goes into them.

The class went well because the recipe was simple and was great for fitting into a one hour slot. I had to be on constant guard because the hoods on the kitchen extractor fans were really low and had very sharp corners. Obviously the kitchen was not designed for a 184cm tall Scotsman.

I have two more classes to lead before the community course finishes. On the 12th of December, I will teach the class English which will be useful for their visit to British Hills in January. I've mentioned British Hills in a previous post. My final class will be on the 19th of December and will be about Christmas (language, traditions etc). Thanks for reading.

Monkey Business

Today has been pretty cold and the drive to work was slow because of ice on the roads. I arrived at my desk 10 seconds before 8am. Being late for work is frowned upon in Japan and I have not been late in over 2 years. During my time in Japan, I have only been late for work twice (at my previous school). Once I was 10 minutes late because I was stuck behind a useless driver who didn't have the confidence to turn right at a semi-busy junction, and the other time I was 1 minute late because I overslept. I like the Japanese way of being on time - it's a cultural strong point that other countries around the world could learn from. I need to leave for work a bit earlier though as I've been really close to being late recently on a number of occasions. The mountains now have a sprinkling of snow and I am hoping the snowfall will become heavier soon. I really CAN'T WAIT to start skiing again.

I was told today that the ski pass I usually buy has changed. Over the last couple of years, the ski pass which I bought cost about ¥18,000 (about 90 quid) which gave me unlimited skiing at Daikura Ski Area (not too far from Shimogo and really close to the schools where I now work). I thought this was a pretty good deal. However, this year, the ski pass will cost the same but allow me unlimited skiing at 4 ski areas. That's fantastic news!!! In truth, I was getting a little bored of Daikura and now I have the opportunity to ski at other places for no extra cost. Excellent!

I hope to go skiing 3 or 4 times a week. I'll probably go to Daikura Ski Area every Wednesday after school. Although it will be dark by then, you are able to ski under the course floodlights. I also plan on skiing every Saturday and Sunday. In February, I'll take a half day holiday on each Friday and head to the slopes straight from school. Friday skiing is excellent as the slopes are usually deserted and conditions are often perfect. On occasions, I have been the only skier on the slopes. It's a great feeling to ski and not have to worry about colliding with other skiers.

The previous 3 years that we have lived in Shimogo has seen some pretty harsh winters with heavy snow. Unfortunately, the winter this year is expected to be relatively benign and I am worried that this will be a poor season. Last year, I went skiing over 30 times. Hopefully I can match or exceed that figure this year.

I will really miss the skiing when we move to Tokyo, but I will try and visit Minami Aizu (where we currently live) a couple of times a year for skiing. It should also be easy for me to travel to Nagano on the bullet train. I've decided that swimming will be my main hobby once we move to Tokyo.

Anyway.......monkeys. Today I really knew I was in the Japanese countryside when the school grounds were invaded by monkeys! From the staffroom, the other teachers and I saw a large pack / family / herd of monkeys making their way down the side of the mountain next to the school. One was really big and looked like a gorilla. Apparently they've started roaming around now because they're searching for food. What is the collective term for a large number of monkeys? Okay, according to this link, a group of monkeys can be called either a troop, barrel, carload (!!??!!), or tribe.

The school janitor chased the carload of monkeys away by firing several shots from the school starting pistol. He also took a wooden sword with him (as seen in The Last Samurai) which are used in Japan for practice sword fights. I stayed safely in school as I could not stop thinking about the monkeys in the film '28 Days Later'. In the film, monkeys were infected with some deadly and contagious virus which results in them attacking people. It's a good film but not a good thing to watch if you have primates living in close proximity to you.

I'm fairly busy this week (again) and I shouldn't be spending my time writing my blog as I have more urgent matters to attend to. However, if feels good to get these words down and I feel a bit of stress ebbing away. I'll try and post a short blog about my conversation class tomorrow. I am teaching about 14 students how to make shortbread in the kitchen of Tajima Town Office. It's ironic that I am teaching people to cook as all I have 'cooked' in the past were Findus Crispy pancakes and the occasional peppercorn steak at Aberdeen University. The security guards always knew when I was having steak for dinner as I would always cause the fire alarm to go off because of the smoke in the kitchen. Anyway, watch this space for an update on Kane's cooking class. Bye.