Camp

The 27th through the 30th, I was grateful to be part of an English Summer Camp. During the last week and first 1-2 weeks of August is the summer break for Japanese Schools. This is a prime and good opportunity to create camps or have camps. Many students go to camps of English to further their English study and get a big chance to be in an American Culture environment and be surrounded by English Speakers and so this is a good opportunity for them. This is also a good opportunity to have fun bible stories and lessons infused into the English Camp. This Camp is an English Camp first and foremost, but we also have just as much bible teaching in English and Japanese. The food is all American, and so the kids, young adults and even adults are able to really experience a lot of the ways of what an American camp looks and even feels like.. to be honest i thought the atmosphere was very good i really felt like i was in America or at least an American camp. The first day on monday was just a meet and greet kinda of day, no teaching English lessons yet but full of songs and games and having a lot of fun. This camp was not only a spend the night camp but could also be the day camp. This camp was made to meet the needs of your schedule. Parents did not always have the time to take their children or what have you and so these made for a good opportunity for the maximum amount of people to have the opportunity for this camp. I was blessed to be an English Teacher at this camp and i was assigned to the young adults 16-30 or maybe 16-25ish.. i am not entirely sure on the ages. It was very difficult to prepare becuase i was not aware of all the ages or levels of English so i was really struggling to put something together, but finally i put what i thought would be.. enough to survive lol and move on. I had to teach 1 hour and 30 minutes lessons. And I had 4 lessons. I do not know why but it just felt like oh my goodness how can i teach for that long, i only really found out that i had taught 2 hour lessons back in the United States after the camp was over ahah.. but even though i wanted to teach well and interact well with the people, i was unsure and not worried but skeptical, yet i moved forward with confidence.. on Tuesday on the first class session i decided that we would just play games becuase i had met the students on that monday and realized very quickly that their level was a good level. advanced beginner to intermediate. They could understand you if you spoke normal to slow pace.. but learned a lot with your talking so it was really perfect... my games that i had made, i found out were not to high and not to low for them.. they might have known most of the words.. but i worked on past tense.. present tense continuous aka verb + ing and future.. they got a lot of practice on very random and different subjects.. and i picked these topics becuase not only can they practice, but you learn about them.. and it was not like a typical lesson, it was just like if we just went to hang out and we talked and i explained maybe a 10 minute lesson and then we played a game. Some might say what a ten minute less wow that snot long enough.. but in the all honesty every teacher lectures a lot.. i knew from their level immediately they understood and practice practice is most important here. And it really gave them confidence the more they spoke. The game would last around an 1 hour or 1 hour 15. In the process of each thing they said i asked the other people and then i would say what i liked or something relating to that topic.. example: all the games were board games based on each tense :past tense was like landed on a space that said "see" movie" with other things like yesterday, one month ago.. so it may look like "yesterday I saw a movie" or "yesterday I saw the movie transformers" so the whole time was English listening, hearing, using.. and we got to know each other also.. As always there were some blank stares, nervous looks, and words that ended in i dont know... but all in all there were more laughs.. and smiles then those other things and i think that is whats most important... on Tuesday they enjoyed the game sorry and some small talk.. but they started off a bit shy like most students do.. but man at the end of the camp they were really speaking a lot of English.. but not just speaking.. like loudly.. some students tend to speak a lot of English but softly and quietly.. this was the way it was in the beginning but at the end.. it was great confident. there were 6 total in our class.. the ages were 17, 17, 20,31, and Karissa the kashiwazaki intern and me. It turned out they were all girls HA, story of my life... how does it always happen.. i will never know.. it happened in h.s and in various other things... i will never know.. but i was really glad Karissa was there to help ease any nervousness... but its ok either they laughed a lot becuase they thought i was stupid or becuase they were having a good time... i don't think i really want to know. but at the end of the camp i had made friends with them. Karissa and I exchanged our email with them and hopefully we will be able to keep in touch. I think of of the most successful things was the game spoons that we taught them, they absolutely loved that game. It was a good game to play when we had free time or even during our game time in the study session.. In every study session there was a game.. and if the game didn't have much English in the game.. it was easy to add talking and communication practice during the game so that way they didn't have to think about things.. it was very surprising to me that during the game of spoons their openness went up and choppiness went way down when they spoke.. they didn't have to sit and think about it and if they did they didn't have pressure with that game.. so i thought all in all... everything really worked out a lot better than i ever thought.. It was a very good experience for me to have that environment to teach in. during the camp i was also in some ways honestly completely put on the spot to lead worship during the camp time.. Some people say that i have some good pipes.. or hey you can sing kinda deal.. but its just something im not confident but when i get really excited about something sometimes i sing in a weird voice hoping to hide my voice.. and honestly i don't know how it truly went but i answered the call from the leaders of the camp and i lead two worships songs in the campfire / marshmallow time. I did have someone play a guitar but i started off with no music.. the songs i sang were "awesome god" and "Jesus Loves me" songs that were being sung the whole camp and had motions. To be honest i don't know how it happened.. I have never known anyone to just ask a random person.. (me) who hadn't said they sang or did anything like that to just start up and sing.. it raised my suspicions on maybe someone who heard me more often said something but i will never know.. lol i did ask someone who i thought it was but all he said was "honestly i really don't know.. but you seem like a guy who likes to sing.. and hey you have a nice set of pipes" I really didn't want to say no and let them down, so of course I said,yes. I think that it was a good experience in that it broke some of the nerves off for future things and helped me become even more flexible than i ever thought i could be. I was used in a way i had never been used before and it was completely unplanned and so it showed me no matter how good or bad you think you are at something, there is always so much more we can do or be used for if we only allow our minds to think bigger and not suppress the possibilities. Following the end of the camp on Thursday around 2:00 i stayed for like an adult meeting at 6:00 -8:30 kinda like a young adult youth group, not everyone is Christian.. but people who are interested come. Keiko who was at the camp, who lives in kashiwazaki asked me if i was going to come so i decided to stay and go. This was the first time I ate somen the traditional Japanese way. Somen is like a long noodle and is eaten in like a form of broth, but it is cold and only eaten in the summer, it is really good. The traditional way is where it is run down a bamboo slide which has water in it and you have your bowl and you grab it with your chopsticks. It was a really fun thing to do. There were many people there, maybe around 14ish. 4 Chinese people were there and 4 Japanese, 6 American, the Chinese spoke Chinese and Japanese and one Chinese lady spoke a lot of English and the others could somewhat communicate in English but it was strange becuase there we were both foreigner, but using Japanese to try and communicate+ some english but mostly neither of our native tongues to try and talk lol.. The person who spoke, spoke in English and Japanese for the teaching. After that i headed home and for lunch at a farewell party from some of the students from an ECS class, it was very enjoyable and I was very thankful for the food, there was so much to eat ahah.. but that concludes my 27th-31st

Tea Ceremonies! + Culture

My quest to the Eastern most part of the world has been not only a deep and meaningful experience, but I have met many wonderful people more than willing to share and teach their culture with me. I have been thrown in to the culture of Japan and the subtle and large influences it has on peoples lives and the world around it. When you take a look at all of Japan it is evident of all the influences it has on the world and the influence it has received from the world, mainly the west. The Japanese people are very interesting curious people. They do many things that dont always make sense to me, yet I try and follow that way of doing things. I have unfortunately found that wheat bread does not exist in Japan. I also have found that sleeping past the hour of 9am is late. This has been more than true experience of learning how to teach English, but learning the people in whom I teach. I have made many friends and been able to learn a lot from them and hopefully them from me. I have found men love to drink and always invite you to drink with them. I find this funny, only becuase the alcohol tolerence is mostly low in japanese people. I have been blessed with 3 opprotunities to participate in a tea ceremony. I have been shown the tea ceremony process two times, and on the 3rd time been shown a little more formally at a tea ceremony class taught by a teacher. I went to her house and was shown for about 2 hours tea ceremony and even was able to do it. For those of you who dont know what tea ceremony is, I myself do not know a lot about it, but that it was from the older days of Japan, when the samurai used to get together and have meetings or hang out kinda thing. they would eat sweets and talk and drink bitter tea to counter the really sweet treats. Women can do the Tea Ceremony and it is a big part of the Japanese Culture. Some feel that without the tea ceremony, Japanese Culture would be lost. I do not know all the different kinds of Tea Ceremony, but they can be just for get togethers or formal outings and etc.. The tea ceremony dress is usually a kimono for a guy and women, and a yukata(summer version) can be worn if specified. Sometimes you will see people in suits or etc becuase it is a form of formal party to show respect and honor to the past culture or buisness I think that Japanese people do lots of things very well, they remmember their culture they do it to perfection, they remmember their religion and the no violent ways of life they try to persue and forms of simplicity. I find it very intresting that though Japnese people say they want peace, there history has been plauged with violence and war. I have also found that in the using of their language I have learned that many non-natives are very expressive with the language and how they speak, but Japanese dont always express how they feel or the deepness of themselves. They are held back and reserved, not always so open about their feelings. I was using Japanese and my Japanese was correct, but it was pointed out to me that Japanese person would never be so expressive, what I said was not bad at all, but I have began to relize the difference in the languages and the abilities of those languages and how it makes perfect sense how I feel sometimes limited with Japanese in the way i can express things, but from the Japanese mind, maybe those things they would not try to say. Loving languages and being a native English Speaker, Japanese language is not hard really at all, it is a very simple language, the reading is what makes it hard but just speaking it has some pretty simple rules. When we look at English we can see that there are many ways to describe and express feelings and other various things, we are often times giving our opinions and showing what we think and feel to others whether on facebook, aol.. etc.. English is in many respects very broad, but its very difficult to bring a very expressive language to a very simple language. They both come from the way the culture was brought up and neither is wrong or right, just different. I am thankful i have been able to really make friends with actually mostly 30-40 year old women ahah house wives and moms aahah we all laugh about it when I am this 21 year old around all these older ladies.. just the other day they said.. wow nathan is popular with the older ladies in Japan ..lol. in a way some might say.. well thats boring.. but not really.. yes i may not have had many opprotunities with my age (as much, but i have) i can learn a lot from them and the years of wisdom and knowlage they have. They have much to offer and they are just as happy to be with me as i am with them.

Open School Day!

Every Tuesday, Robin and I make our trip to tsubame a city 15 minutes by train near sanjo to teach 4 children English. Momoko 5th, Kou 3rd grade and Mamiko 2nd, Rikako, kindergarden grade. This particular day there was an open school day and the mother invited me to go see the children. She would be there aso and would be visiting, so i decided that this would be a very good opportunity to build my relationship with the kids especially, Momiko and Kou. The mother speaks English pretty well but not perfect and so it made things a bit easier while i was visiting. The open day school is where you can go to any class and observe what's going on and how the classes are run. It was a very good opportunity to see a Japanese school in action. It did not really differ to much from the schools in America. As i made my way into the school i first visited Mamiko. Mamiko was very pleased and excited to see me. As was the whole class. they were looking and staring wondering who i was as soon as i entered the room. The teacher explained that i was from the United States.. and as soon as those words rolled off her tongue.. The kids went crazy... screaming "America America" he is from America.. but obviously in Japanese. i understood what they were saying... and of course as soon as they knew.. they tried to say as many English words as they knew. i am in a country area, so it is not likely.. or really extremely rare.. a foreigner would come to a school like that, and even more rare for this area I am in. So i may have been the first foreigner(western) in person they had seen, but that is what some Japanese people suggested i have spoken to. so when i went up another floor to visit Kou i saw him through the door and he was chatting and having a good time. After i entered the room he was like a stone ahah and was very shy. i stayed just a bit then made my way to see Momoko. i went in the door and she eventually turned around and did a double take ahah she was shocked to see me there. I didn't know if she was excited or not lol. I saw everyone, but i had to leave for a little bit of time with the mother. The grandmother wanted to eat out with us at their favorite restaurant which was a traditional Japanese restaurant. The meal was very good, we of course had to sit on the floor. I think I actually felt good about my size, because though there are Japanese that are quite tall, they prob have a lot of trouble with the Japanese lifestyle. As i am not having to much trouble I am just at the right size lol... I finished my meal and me and the mother made our way back to the school(Robin was with us this whole time, but did not follow us back becuase she had a class to teach i usually attend) now it was the games part of the day. Where the classes played against each other in games. It was really fun. Momoko saw me again, and actually gave me a smile and wave this time, so i think it was a slight breakthrough. Kou was still a little, reserved, but eventually aloud me to play in the last game with him. Though Kou has been difficult to connect with, Robin has told me that she thinks things might be ok, becuase he does talk to me and that is a good sign. Also the reason that Mamiko and Rikako are more open is i had seen them more, i have had limited time with Momoko and Kou, but i think this day was very good. On my way out of the school before lunch I gave a kid a high five. After that every kid that was in the area and from random places I had no idea how they knew were trying to get a high five from me. i was beginning to be mobbed.. but it was what i expected. I even had a mob of kids just follow me around during the free time of the open school after i returned from lunch. It was a fun filled experience. On my way back to their home which is not far from the school, becuase we had a class that day I met an Australian living close by and talked to her or rather she talked to me a whole bunch..lol the day concluded with fun games based on the 4th of july a culture class.. it ended well.. until next time this is The Japan Trip.

Karaoke!!!

Last Saturday the 20th was my first experience with the Japanese karaoke. I had been planning this with Takashii, one of the sons of my home stay family. He goes to the University of Niigata, which I will talk about more in a different post. There was also another friend with him Naoki, who goes to the same school. They picked me up at ECS around 6:00 and then I went back to the house, because I had not eaten yet. I finished eating and then we were off. The karaoke was in Sanjo. You go in and there is a counter and lobby and you see a long hallway with assorted rooms where the fun is. When you go you pay per hour and you can also pay for food and drinks and whatever you want really. Takashii and Naoki chose and we made our way to a room and the fun began. It started off a little edgy, but by the end of the night we were all singing and laughing and having a good time. I would have to say that if you want to see Japanese people at their most comfortable, hot springs and karaoke and maybe some other things really let them relax ahah... the room itself was very comfortable with seats on one side like a booth and a screen on the opposite side to look at and sing. They had an electronic device to choose songs with like a handheld computer and air-conditioning to change temperature. Those guys pretty much went crazy when it came to there favorites song, I was always singing with Naoki because he loved rap music ahahah and he needed my help to try and say the words at speed. He was good at speaking English and it was very funny watching him rap. I think this was a great opportunity for me because was able to really build a relationship with him and we hit it off and with Takashii as well but I had known him a little longer. After 3 hours of singing Michael Jackson, backstreet boys, usher we finally concluded with half way jokingly with the Japan national anthem. They said if I wanted to impress older people I have to sing and know this song. The song is very short and we sang it twice. Japanese enjoy music from the poppy genre and sound, so they were always interested in the music I chose and most of the time liked it and wrote it down. This concludes the karaoke! Stay tuned for... unexpected visit from Japanese friends.... the Japanese teacher... my home stay family and much more! Lots of pictures will be up soon!

kashiwaski 15th-16th june

Kashiwaski is a city of 90,000 and is 50 minutes away from Sanjo where I live.(by train) There are missionaries that live there and also have an ECS school. There are 3 ECS schools. They are located in Sanjo, Kashiwaski and Niigata city, but Niigata does not have a Christian affiliation anymore. I was able to go with Jerry Mort the missionary there. He teaches at 3 Universities, but I only attended two of them. I was able to see what it would be like to be a professor or language teacher at a University. He even surprised me and let me teach a big portion of the lesson. Many of the students ranged from very good English to not so hot, but it was a tremendous experience to see first hand the different kinds of English teaching that range from ECS where I work and upper levels of education and what I should expect. Jerry Mort is a very talkative person and he was able to really explain and teach me about Japanese culture and about the people just in two short days. The whole purpose of my visit to Kashiwasaki was not fully attended to be a learning experience at the university, but there are festivals that go on in many different cities and I was there to help ECS. They were having an open door just trying to let people know what they were about and I went to help and experience what that is like. We plaid songs and things and I met 1 Japanese Christian girl and her friend which is moving in the direction of Christianity. Also when I tell people my age they always say... oh my you are young!, but they are only 24-25 themselves lol. But this trend is very common when I introduced myself in class to the students or among my home stay mother’s friends. . I took the train by myself on this trip and I made it ok, I have taken the train many times by myself. Kashiwasaki was the first time where I experienced Japanese people shouting out any English word they knew to grab my attention ahah and sometimes the words did not make any sense and would be followed by a laugh from their friends at them trying to speak English . It is also common to see shirts in English but for them to make so since whatsoever. English is seen as kool on shirts as the characters from other languages on American shirts sometimes. Which probably don’t make since。 thank you again for all the support! later for now.

It begins

The week has concluded and it has been an amazing first week. The plain flight took 14 hours and the train ride another 2 and a half. I went by the shinkansen which is the bullet train and it was very wonderful and fast. I was greeted at the station at 11pm where I went to stay with a couple until my home stay family arrived back from a trip. I stayed with them for 2 days. They were very nice to me and made sure I felt at home. They also took me out the last night i stayed with them to a Japanese restaurant and it was very delicious and they were surprised that I enjoyed all the food as it is Japanese understanding Americans do not eat much raw fish. it is also assumed that my favorite foods were hamburger. lol but we learned many interesting and surprising things from our assumptions. The next day i went to church in sanjo and met many of the church members this service was in English and Japanese but they usually it is in Japanese. Once a month they have a bilingual service, the members ranges from 10-17 people. After church that day I was able to go to a kite festival in tsubame sanjo where i saw this huge kite as big as 8 feet high and 6 feet wide and it was pretty amazing how they flew. They would fly them on each side of the bank and have them fight. This tradition was created out of the upper class and lower fighting over the bank because the lower class boys could not fly kites near the bank. So the fight began and became a tradition.
I believe the church is in a home not a traditional western building. The place I am staying is more in the country than in the big city though there are many cities around sanjo. Niigata, Nagaoka, etc. These are around 30-45 minutes away by car. This whole week I have already done many things ranging from observing classes meeting the students, meeting my home stays friends and being a practice bag for English. I do not mind at all, but I was somewhat surprised how many people even if they knew but one word in English wanted to say it to me. The people have been very nice and kind, and I hope not to get used to this, but return their kindest with my own. Because I am in the country and not the city there are few foreigners and so this is what might spark the interest in wanting to speek English with me. Beside me and robin and a Swedish man I don’t know any other western people. Most people that are foreign are Chinese or Korean. I think this place will be a big blessing to me as I hope I can be to them. Many people are very surprised that I would want to visit such a small city of 80,000 people. That is one of the first questions they ask me, and are always surprised with my answer.(I wanted to come to a small city) they assumed I would want to visit Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto very big cities. I have traveled to Niigata city briefly and it was a big city and I enjoyed it. I have had many foods in Japan and I have enjoyed them all which have surprised everyone I talk to. They are also surprised on how much Japanese I know (I know very little) but that little is much more than most foreigners know just starting out in Japan know. They have all been more than willing to help me learn Japanese. They all teach different things, but I am more than thankful for their kindness. Today which is Sunday is my welcome party and I hope that goes well. I have already built a good relationship with one of my home stays sons and we plan to go to karaoke and bowling. He is a student at the University of Niigata. He would like to learn English and he is pretty good, so we will study together with me helping him and he helps me a lot with Japanese. I have already been able to learn so much about the culture and language just in this short week. I hope that it will continue and I thank all of you for your prayers.