cool, i am a high school teacher for a day!

bubbles gets her gotcha gotcha toy, lilo and stich

the CRAZY 3-1 class at Genkai high school, gotta love em!

oh what sweet girls, hand gestures!

i wont forget you OhNo

ICE CREAM DINNER

Ran into some of my former students at the FamilyMart. They were my basketball kids, so i especially like em. It was mr. Nishimura and another student. I asked if they had dinner yet, not yet they replied. So i was like "do you like ice cream?". Yes, of course, any kid loves ice cream. So i treated em out to some ice cream. Amazing how happy kids get. They were like, "cool, cool, thank you, thank you, you are rich". I think i would be happy too if i was a student again and got ice cream from my teacher.

GOLDEN BALLS??

Going to class today i had my "gotcha gotcha" balls in hand (the plastic toy balls from those machines). 2 in hand, which isnt a good idea near the 3rd grade boys. Of course they were trying to position them near my chest. Then later on they moved them downward toward my pants and said, "Golden Balls!". I was like wow! Yeah, they pretty important, almost as if they were like gold.

IT WAS A GOOD DAY

Often times i bitch about my classes, but alot of times i have good classes. I just wanted to keep things positive too saying i had a bunch of good classes today, kids were having fun, and i was having fun too!

And the funny thing for the bad classes, is even when the class is shitty and the kids look like they are on life support not doing anything, right after class they bounce back and say "HI!". Its not like they hold a grudge or anything. Oh, I love kids.

DANCING IN SEPTEMBER ... ERR I MEAN MAY

Walking around cleaning time i stumbled into some of the girls hanging out on the bridge. They called me over. And they were like watch, lets dance. So it was Na-chan and some her buddies going .... waving their arms a couple times and then saying "number one!" ... of course me being dumb me joined in. Until a teacher broke it up, but after he left, it was back to swinging the arms and "number one!"

"action!"

here to root the "pussy" boys

go team go!

beautiful sunset, friends, bbq, and a slamma, what else could you ask for in life

when you havent had lovin for awhile

a little late nite fire show

1... 2... 3...

genki power!

ALOT OF PICS

I was just organizing my videos and pics on my comp and i think i have a little too many. Because it currently stands at 15gigs!

LONG TIME NO SEE

Was walking around today at school and ran into my old principal. It was good to see him. Then he told me to wait and ran to his car to give me a present. How cool to get a present from him, i opened it up and it was a nice cool lookin Japanese style fan. I sure could use one of these its getting hot up in here.

SCHOOL TRIP TO KOBE

Well its that time of year! Its school trip time, the 3rd grade kids are off to Hokkaido, the 1st grade kids are off to Himeji, and well i am off to Kobe with the 2nd grade kids. Bright and early i was off to the train station to meet up with the kids, it was a lovely sunny day! I love school trips, they are fun, and its a chance to just hang out with the kids. The rest of the story will be told by the pics to come ...

JV

Looking at my basketball team, now i really know the benefits of a JV and a Varsity team back home. You can divide the kids that need work and the kids who are more refinied. Lets just say that some of these kids may need much much much work. But there aint no JV and V, just one team. Oh well, will do me best o.

3 SCHOOL GIRLS 3 STREAMS OF WATER

Went to kyoto over the weekend and noticed these school girls trying to get some water or prosperity in their cups from the kiyomizu-dera temple. Quite humorous, take a look at the pics, i am sure i would be doing the same thing too!

1st girl: "oh this is easy"

3rd girl: "mmm ... how do you do this?"

2nd girl: "oh my god girl, turn the cup"

3rd girl: "turning, turning, i think i can, i think i can"

HAPPY BDAY MANA

The little things, usually today the volleyball kids just run by, but i said HI to all of them. Then one of them came up to me and asked the phrase we were practicing a couple week backs.

Mana: When is your birthday?
Markane: Oh, its august 1st. When is your birthday?
Mana: My birthday is May 23rd.
Markane: Oh, yesterday?
Mana: Yes
Markane: Whats your name?
Mana: Mana ....
Markane: Happy Birthday to you! Mana!

Kids, so cute.

BALLIN WITH THE KIDS

Yeah with the really small kids, the 3rd grade kids were gone on school trip, so it was only the 1st graders and 2nd graders today. So that would be about 13-14 year old kids. The 1st grades are so small, i think that most are 5 foot tall, i hope they grow soon. Otherwise the team next year is going to be at a very big height disadvantage. Some kids have good skills, then others are OMG. Not sure if they even know how to jump or run. Sometimes i wonder. Not even sure if they ever seen basketball in their life, on TV or what not. Mmm ... what to do with the team when i coach them, or try to? Sometimes its like trying to teach elementary kids that are in 3rd grade. Layups are getting better, so that is good. But shooting from outside? Its like airball central, they arent even strong enough to throw it that far. Geezzz ... and i dont think its going to get any better any time soon ... they cant even jump with two fee ... what to do? what to do? Guess, i have to take deep breaths as usual.

DANG AIR

My car tire has ben a little flat lately, so i wanted to pump it up. Went to the gas station to get some air, found the air pump, but didnt know how to use the darn thing. No switch or anything to turn on, and i couldnt read the instructions nor understand the pictures. Damn, how simple things become difficult in japan.

well done okonomiyaki

we love eating at minato's!

kitty chan and gods

I have introduced myself. You have introduced yourself. This is a very good conversation.

last samurai baby, on location

A GUEST AT SCHOOL

Here are some random questions from my crazy 3rd grade kids, mostly girls, cuz this year the boys seem to be pretty shy ...

kids: where are you from?
plearn: i am from thailand
kids: oh, from taiwan
plearn: no, thai
kids: oh, thai ...

kids: whats your job?
plearn: i am a flight attendent
kids: oh, stewardess
kids: oh, cool

kids: what countries do you go to?
plearn: thailand, india, singapore, australia, japan, korea
kids: did you meet any famous people?
plearn: mmm ... i met richard gere
kids: you met bae yong joon? yon sama?
plearn: no, no, no
kids: bae yong joon!!

kids: girlfriend! kanajo! girlfriendo???
markane: no, no, no
kids: love, lobu, lobu
markane: no, no

kids: where do you stay?
plearn: markane's
kids: ooohhhhhhhh
kids: same room?
markane: no, no, seperate rooms, i have two rooms
kids: same room
markane: no, two rooms
kids: ooooohhhhhhhh

Where you from? Thailand. Oh you are from Taiwan? -, Nishimura, Plearn, Yuka, -, Chihiro

PLEARN VISITS

Today my friend Plearn visited, geez havent seen her for over 2 years, since back in the old UW days, its cool to have friends come over! So any of you out there, come by anytime! I am practicing my tourguide skills.

STUDENT QUOTE OF THE DAY

I made a worksheet, aka print .. this was in preperation for their hokkaido school trip ... and the question went like this ... "Who do you want to go with to Hokkaido? Why?" So i asked my student, Ms. mao what her thoughts were, here is how the conversation went.

markane: who do you want to go with to hokkaido?
mao: i dont go to hokkaido
markane: mmm ... you dont like hokkaido?
mao: no
markane: where do you want to go?
mao: europe
markane: oh ... then write i want to go to europe
mao: i want to go to europe with rich man, because he rich
markane: nice answer!

all the sushi caught for the day

doraemon says dont play with fire

HI 5

Today went to shogakko, had to teach the little ones today, so the 1st and 2nd graders. For some reason i couldnt stop sneezing all day. Maybe because the school is next to a forest and my allergies are acting up. But the lesson went something like ... rock ... scissors .... achoo ... achoo ... achoo ... paper ... 1 ... 2 ... achoo ... 3 ... . Anyways, somehow made it, and i kinda got a new thing, instead of shaking all the little ones hands, which takes too long, just decided to give everyone hi-5s . Then there was a mini all school meeting, then afterwards when all the kids left, i think i gave hi-5s to about 200 of them. Hi-5 way more cool than that boring hand shake.

its instant ramen time! here are the steps on how to eat it, ... 1st step, you gotta take off that damn extra plastic wrapper

2nd step, you gotta admire the "RA" for ramen, ok plastic wrapper is off

3rd step whoa! look at the new hi tech steam venting system, bling bling

4th step, inside, wow, look at all the pretty packets and noodles, too bad i dont know what they say

5th step, look at the wierd package shit, i think its meat and veggies, not sure if safe to eat, but we will soon find out!

6th step, add HOT bath water, POOF! ramen! itadakimasu!

final step, gochisamadeshita!

NISHI CHU BIRTHDAY

Yes! Today was my schools birthday! That means a day off, or a nice day to chill at home and just clean. But for the poor kids, that means go to school and practice sports, and band as usual.

SMOKIN

If u ever visited a restaurant in japan, you will know what i mean when there is no true non-smoking area. Because usually everywhere is smoking, or if u are in a different area, the smoke tends to glide over into your area. Got kids? dont bring em to McDonalds, its a total smokefest for all the post high school kids. This could also lead to the reason why i havent smoked that much, not that i do anyways, cuz usually i dont. But now a days, i tend to get my fill of smoke at the local restaurants and even at school.

CAR OIL CHANGE

Ok, got enough courage to try and do stuff by myself now a days, even if i only understand like 20% of what they are saying. So the once easy task of taking my car to Grease Monkey up in Ballard, has turned into a new adventure.

Went into a local place, and of course no one around here speaks English, so better study that Japanese! I asked for an oil change to the lady, and she said it was ok, then all of sudden she was asking all these other questions, such as do you want "element"? I was like what was that, crazy japanese/english words. I know english, but i dont know how it refers to cars. After a couple minutes of dumbfound looks, finally settleled to just get a regular oil change. Guess later i will have to figure out what this element thing is. In the end they were very nice, even changed the sticker on my window, which deals with car "shaken". So got the car running nice and good again, just another day, and another adventure.

yes, its a view through my doors peep hole

my favorite seat in the house, in front of my computer

the lovely view from my seat

another view ... oh look, peoples laundry!

A SUNDAY DRIVE

It was a nice sunday day, sun shinning and nothing to do. So why not take a drive around the countryside? So me and Susanne just drove around the himeji, yamasaki, shingu, tatsuno, etc. area. Then i remembered the boys day carp streamers which stood by the ibogawa river, seemed like a nice day to take some pics too. The streamers stand on a pole that is over 50 feet tall i would guess. Pretty big!

boys day carps flying high above the ibogawa river

love the colors and design of the carp

the sun sets

TGIF 13

Thank god its friday! Long week, I dont care even if its friday the 13th. Had fun asking the kids, "what is todays date?". Only exciting thing today was that we had a virus in the computer at school, and it was like the computer SWAT team that came in that tried to fix it, as 3 guys in suits rolled in.

15

3 days 15 classes ..... i just want to say OVERWORKED over here, thank you ... have a good nite

BACK TO ELEM SCHOOL

Another day of elementary school because since i have tests at junior high school, they love to ship me out to elementary school. Yes, they love to work me to death. Hope i survive.

Anyways overall it was a good time except for those damn quiet teachers! How do you become a teacher when you dont even know how to control a class? Nothing against girls, but this teacher is so quiet and shy the kids dont even respect her. Its 2nd grade and the kids are running around like monkeys, talking when the teacher is talking, hiding under desks, running around, its crazy. All the other teachers classes are great, kids obey and listen, but this one is like a zoo! If i had a belt i would whip these kids into shape. Geeezz ... no wonder kids go bad, its because they have sucky teachers. Then the good kids cant even focus cuz their buddies are running like animals. Fortunately that was only 1 of the 5 teachers, the other 4 were terrific, runned class like a TV special.

Today was also the first time i met the 1st grade kids at this school. They were like in lalala land, and when i started speaking in english of course they were like "wakarahen" which means i dont understand. Bunch of whiners, ha ha ha, of course you dont understand yet, its english i am here to teach you kids. Think kids, its like japanese you gotta learn it. Anyways, had to jump to IDEA mode. So i looked around the room and started grabbing random things with english words, "Pooh" i read, then "shinkansen", then "pocket bear", and threw in some gestures such as putting the pocket bear in my pocket. The kids were starting to understand the importance of english. Next, i asked them to take out their pencil case, so i can read em. So they all came up in a mob, they had the usual popular cases such as "Pocket Monsters", "Puma", "Hamsutu" etc. Then we finished off the lesson with guess my age on the board, ranging from 2 years old to 1,000 years old, then a lesson of rock, paper, scissors in english. Nice kids, just gotta train em for english.

BLUE MONDAY HAPPY TUESDAY

Lucky i went to elementary school to get away from jr high, its a nice mix. Yesterday was "blue monday", a phrase that was rightfully given from Azuma sensei, relating to the fact that i have 5 classes on monday. Shit some people dont even teach 5 classes in a week. Anyways some of the classes were so-so, and i was just fucking tired. I was like in another world and it seems like some days people dont care about you, well that is the other teachers, because they are so busy, but the kids are always nice, they are always there for a nice chat.

So early this morning, tuesday that is, i went to my favorite elementary school. All the kids and teachers are great there! Not sure how it is, but they never fail me, and of course at the end of the day today, they didnt prove me wrong. 5 classes again, but full of fun kids and teachers. Its great to go there, even the principal and vice-principal always have a chat with me, they speak pretty good english and are pretty cool too. Its even funny in the tea room, they have a picture of me when i first came to Tatsuno with all the big whig people, and they wrote a little note saying, Markane, ALT. Its nice of them to have my picture up there, makes me feel happy.

BEEN BUSY

Sorry, been busy playing with this new photo website called Flickr. Check it out! Its pretty cool.

1000 YEN CHANGE?

Coming back on the late train, i got a cheap ticket from Osaka. When exiting the train i tried to be legit and pay, but i noticed that my train only has change for 1000yen. Unfortunately i only had 5000yen and 100000yen bill. After a couple of confusing looks with the train driver, i told him that i was american and that i didnt know that the train only had change for 1000yen bills. Him looking just as confused just said "next, station" and gestured me out. So i hopped on out of the train. Cool! cheap ticket home, its nice to have a little inaka station. That was like $18 bucks saved! Or like 3 bowls of ramen.

WHAT TO DO ON A HOLIDAY?

Clean the apartment of course! Damn its hot today.

Afterwards went to the gym to pump some iron and ran into Noriko's daughter and son-in-law. They were out with their son "Tatsuhiro". He is the cutest thing. Noriko's daughter snapped some pictures of him while testing out my camera. When he was born, he was a whopping, 10 pounds!!

where is the ice cream?

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

new PUMA shoes!

BECOMING JAPANESE - MEAT SKIN

Here in japan, seems like fat on meat is very delicious and acceptable as well as skin. I know back home i dont like to see even an ounce of fat or skin on my meat unless its fried chicken. But here, guess i been so used to eating skin and extra fat, i dont even bother taking it off anymore. Because if i took it off, half my meal would sometimes disappear.

HITTING THE GYM

Been going to the gym quite often recently and looks like i am about back to my regular self! Of course had to take about 2 years. Nice to put on 2 , 45s on each side.

MAY MADNESS

Well not quite the March Madness of the NCAA tourney, but it was basketball, junior high basketball that is. Game today, was way out in the town of Kamigori, about a 20-30 minute drive. Hopped in my car and drove out, but when i got to the town i thought i could find the school it was being played out, because coach Tomo told me its near the station. So how big could this town be? Luckily it wasnt very big, because i stopped by an elementary school, high school, and then found the jr high school. Thought it was being played there, but no basketball, only volleyball, even the kids said "ohaiyo gozaimus" to me and i didnt even work there, so nice. After driving in circles i soon figured out it wasnt at any of the schools, so just decided to drive near the station, then bingo, found the Kamigori gym where the game was being played. Must take note to double check the place its being played at.

When i got in i was a bit late and the 1st quarter just ended and i found Tomo sensei outside of the gym smoking. I thought this was a bit strange as i am sure the 2nd quarter was going on. Met with Ueo sensei and she kindly informed me Tomo sensei was a bit mad and needed a smoke break. No problem i thought as my kids were ahead, but the basketball game resembled more of a game of hot potato. No baskets, missing outside shots everywhere, off balance shots, and crappy passing. Did the kids eat breakfeast? What was going on? It was like slow motion. After seeing about 2 minutes of the game, i could see why Tomo sensei was out smoking. If i could i would too. In the end after much shouting at the kids, mostly by me and Tomo sensei, the kids picked up the pace and started playing better hitting their inside shots and layups. In the end it was a nice waxing of 93-15, a suprise victory for my team, because usually they are on the other end of the score, no joke!

Honestly I didnt expect to win, earlier in the week i asked the kids how were the other teams, and they said those teams were good. So i figured one game and i would be done and then go home and sleep a bit more, but since we won, i gotta hang around. Of course i would prefer to win than lose.

I think Tomo sensei feels more comfortable when i am there as later on he was a bit more relaxed, as i helped him sort out what the kids needed to do to improve their game.

When i was sitting on the bench one of the students, Kenta pointed out that i was on the roster now! I was coach number 3! AC - "assistant coach" ... ha ha ha .. that was so nice of them, and my name was even in english and not katakana. So cool, now i can sit with the team for realz.

There was a nice break, next game would be at 130. So it was just a time fo the kids and coaches to relax. I just hanged out with Tomo sensei and Ueo sensei, Tomo sensei is pretty cool guy, and we can chat along pretty well with our broken japanese and english mix. Found out that we share some common things, such as food! All food! Yum! He was even nice enough to buy me a bento and drink for lunch. Tight.

On to the last game, it was supposed to be a strong team they said, cuz i think they had a bye. But when i looked at them, it was like playing against the smurfs. They were all super small, and i was like they are a strong team? Anyways, whoever, gotta play tough no matter how short they are, cant be overconfident. So decided to go with our best 5 at the time. Ummm .. because matters were complicated when our best 2 players of course got hurt this week! Morimoto and Akamatsu both with knee pains were at about 75%.

And the game starts, bit close after the end of the first quarter. An advantage of being small is that you are fast. Damn, those smurfs. The team had trouble keeping up but they held tough, by the end of the 2nd quarter the kids were running out of gas. But we upped our lead to a bit over 12. The start of the 3rd quarter began and looks like they were going with their mini lineup, took the big man out, so i think they were all about 5 feet tall. Looking to take advantage, i sent in the injured stars. Gotta get them a bit of action. Out of the gates, it was text book basketball, my team was stealing, rebounding, putting pressure, and making easy shots. Near the end of the 3rd quarter it was about over as we upped our lead to 20 and cruised the rest of the way to a nice 73-38 victory. Nice!

Over 3 years the kids couldnt win a game, but now with a little american style coaching we got 3 wins in a row. They were all smiles after the game, nothing like a good hard fought game. Next onto day two of the tournament which comes on tuesday. Nothing like Japan to put a tournament on a national holiday. Crossing the fingers for a victory, but i seen this next team, and damn they good, they waxed us triple digit style last time, ouch!

game starts ...

... and bow ...

silly basketball boys showing off their tummy after the game , tomano, shibehara, akamatsu, shimura

a victory for my school Tatsuno West 93 - 15 ouch!