Of course, I got lost finding the building for training. It was one of those mornings. First, I ran out of my house with everything I didn't need for my day, and next to nothing I needed. Then, in trying for my train, I go to the Shin Toyota Station instead of the Toyota Station (they are literally a block apart connected by an overpass, and I'm always getting mixed up which train leaves from which station) so by the time I get back to the proper station, I've just missed the early train. Now I'm stuck taking the Meitetsu to Chiryu (the one which will get me there on time if I don't have any problems...uh-oh...in Japan, land navigation is ALWAYS problems for me). This set of trains is a trip that I've only done once, in the opposite direction on the day I came to Toyota, where afterwards I spent almost an hour wandering around the city trying to find my apartment. This is not fortuitous.
Worse, as the train is leaving Toyota Station, I reach into my bag to refresh my memory on the map and directions to the meeting place. Nothing. That's right. I forgot the MOST IMPORTANT thing – my printout of name and address of and the map to the venue where training is being held. Two words. Totally Frakked!
I managed to go online with my (super expensive and confusing) cell phone, check my email and get the basic information, directions, etc. (Lord knows how much that cost) to the training, as well as my supervisor's phone number which for some bizarre reason I hadn't entered into my cell...stupid! I also texted another ALT friend in the company to see if he knew the training venue. All of these things counted for naught though as, when following the instructions, I left the train station via the WRONG EXIT. Japan is a bit like Howl's Moving Castle: if you go out the wrong exit, you end up in an entirely different place than you planned with no way back to the proper place without entering the Castle again—a debatable process.
So I'm outside looking for a Koban (police box), seeing nothing (though in my defense I'm not 100% sure what a Koban looks like anyway) so I ask a guy if he sees a Koban. Nope. Then somehow in the process of asking for further directions, he tells me that I'm at the wrong train station and that I should go back to Kanayama. Next, I call my supervisor and but he doesn't pick up his phone. Now, the smart thing to do at that point would have been to go back into the Nagoya Train Station, find the Visitor's Center and ask them for (yet another) English Map and directions.
But I was tired, stressed out and still a bit sick from this cold that I've been barely staving off since since Wednesday--it's been like waiting for a sneeze: I have a cold, no I don't, yes I do, no I don't...FRAK! Just sneeze already! So instead of doing the smart thing, I did the stupid thing, which was run back to the Subway and start back for Kanayama. What I'm going to do after that is a mystery to me. At the transfer station, my brain kicks back in again, so I go back online--luckily my phone plan-- think-cuts my internet fees at around 4 Sen (about $40/month) but that maybe with a different EZ Plan, so who the hell knows how much money I'm spending looking this crap up online anyway. I'm thinking of going to the cell phone company and asking as a part of my today plan.
And yes, my directions did say Nagoya Station, so now, a half hour later, I'm on my way back to Nagoya Station (where I started). There I find the Visitor's Center, find out that my mistake was going out the wrong exit, and five minutes later (English map in hand), I'm at training.
Training, (the parts I was there for) was quite excellent. We gained more teaching tools and learned more about planning dynamic lessons. I really liked the demonstration and practice on incorporating skits into your lessons, as well as how to use the Karaoke tracks of our teaching songs to create your own teaching songs based on different topics. Also, I got some good personal advice on how to be more effective using flashcards to setup students for activities, producing grammar, etc. All good stuff. It was also great to catch up with the folks from orientation! I also had an amazing lunch, for less than 1 sen (under $10) I had an amazing beef and onion dish with salad and rice. It was so delicious, writing about it, I'm having mouth watering flashbacks!
After training, a group of us went out for a night on the town! That is, hours of Karaoke with Nomihoudai (all you can drink). We were pretty bombed three hours later when the Karaoke place told us that we had to go (there was a line). Towards the end Mie joined us. Afterwards, most everyone went their own ways. I hung out further with Eric, Mie, Ben, Pam and others as we went back to the Nagoya station for food (for me and others) and for the train (as three of our party had to catch the Shinkansen to go home). At this point, I was hungry and definitely working my way to really sick, so while I'd have loved to have stayed out longer, I decided to hitch a ride home with Mie. Eric stayed on, with directions to some clubs and the Manga Cafe, so he could party all night. (I'd have loved to have done this too, but I was too sick. Today, after a night at home, I'm feeling worlds better though).
In short, rough start to the day, but good on the followthrough!
Showing posts with label altia orientation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label altia orientation. Show all posts
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Nagoya Day 2: Orientation/Training and Karaoke!
Today offers less pictures because I spent the bulk of my day in Orientation/Training. I can say definitively that our company offers a huge wealth of wonderful teaching materials and comprehensive training that promises to be quite helpful. From listening to the stories of others ALT's in the room starting with Altia who have experience elsewhere, it seems to me that the training and materials here is definitely top-notch. This makes me feel more comfortable, because aspects of the task we're taking in are a bit overwhelming. I'm going to be teaching in something like 5-6 schools, multiple classes in each, and with multiple teachers. It's more than a little stressful to think about the logistics of this, especially things like memorizing my students' names, consulting with teachers about the lesson plans, etc. I think the first few weeks are going to be a bit rough while I get my feet under me. But the attitude of my trainers and fellow ALTs is very positive. If I could handle my first month of Grad School, this should certainly be within my capabilities. I hope.
After training, it was time for Karaoke! Me and three other ALTs from my company were supposed to hook up with the group I met from Interac when my plane came in, but schedules didn't mesh, so we ended up on our own. It was Saturday night, so when we got to Joy Joy Karaoke, the place was booked an hour out. So we put our names in, and then headed out to find some cheap beer. And so I had my first “Kampai” in Japan, toasting with my new friends over frothy mugs of Nama beer. At this bar, they also give you tofu with your beer. It seemed like it was a part of the package, but we found out after we had finished it that we'd been charged more for the tofu than the beer. That was a bit of a downer, though I did enjoy the tofu.
Our number came up just as soon as we got to Karaoke. And so I stepped foot into one of the millions of beating hearts of the motherland of Karaoke, a Karaoke Booth just outside the Kanayama station in Nagoya Japan. The Karaoke booth is a tiny room with two microphones. Inside, the acoustics are great, and there is even a button that allows you to change the key of the song so that you can sing it better. Alas, my knowledge of what key I should be singing in is limited, but I expect I'll get a feel for it once I do more Karaoke.
The place we were at also had Nomi-houdai, which means all the alcohol you can drink (off of their alcohol menu) but in this case the drinks were so weak it was more like an all you can drink random soda selection. In the Karaoke booth, there is a small portable entry screen which allows you to enter the name of an artist and get all of their songs (that the Karaoke place has). Luckily two of the four people with our group knew exactly how to use the machine, so we were able to select our songs on the entirely Japanese menus. Then, once the song goes through (both English and Japanese songs are featured), you read it off of a large, flatscreen which has all of the words written in their native language with Furigana on top. This means that even the songs with Kanji can be read if you can read Hiragana and Katakana.
Unfortunately, while I can read Hiragana and Katakana, I read it like a mentally deficient second grader, ie, very very sloooooowly. So I couldn't really keep up with the Japanese songs I picked though it was fun to try. My rendition of Crystal Kay's “Think of You” was a slow motion disaster. Larc-en-ciel's driver's high was a bit better, in part because I also had a friend join me. I think this is defintely going to be my road to reading and typing in Japanese! What's also nice about the booths is that you really can do lots of songs in an hour, and with your friends the experience is ridiculously fun. Also the sound setup is amazing. In the other sense though, the booths do make Karaoke less of a “meeting people” experience. We are all in our own little booth bubbles, bonding with existing circles of friends. I am definitely going to be doing a LOT more Karaoke in Japan (note from the future: gonna head out tonight, Monday, after our welcome party) but I think that Karaoke is not going to be my vehicle to meet random strangers. I'm gonna have to find my local bar for that. All of these things I'd already suspected, and it is good to have them confirmed.
After Karaoke, we went to a video arcade where we played this mad awesome drumming game. My partner is a professional drummer, so he set it to major hard “muzukashii”. I barely hit anything (as we were playing as partners) but it didn't matter because it was great fun. I especially enjoyed “Train, Train, Train” the song, which was super cute and fun! (and a bit easier to know when to hit the drum).
After that, it was off to bed and ready for another rousing day of orientation! Let's play a game—Yay!
Pictures are Posted to my Facebook Album: Nagoya Day 2
Next Entry: More Orientation and the Long Walk for Hawaiian Food.
Upcoming: It's The Little Things; Musings on Differences between Nagoya and Philly.
After training, it was time for Karaoke! Me and three other ALTs from my company were supposed to hook up with the group I met from Interac when my plane came in, but schedules didn't mesh, so we ended up on our own. It was Saturday night, so when we got to Joy Joy Karaoke, the place was booked an hour out. So we put our names in, and then headed out to find some cheap beer. And so I had my first “Kampai” in Japan, toasting with my new friends over frothy mugs of Nama beer. At this bar, they also give you tofu with your beer. It seemed like it was a part of the package, but we found out after we had finished it that we'd been charged more for the tofu than the beer. That was a bit of a downer, though I did enjoy the tofu.
Our number came up just as soon as we got to Karaoke. And so I stepped foot into one of the millions of beating hearts of the motherland of Karaoke, a Karaoke Booth just outside the Kanayama station in Nagoya Japan. The Karaoke booth is a tiny room with two microphones. Inside, the acoustics are great, and there is even a button that allows you to change the key of the song so that you can sing it better. Alas, my knowledge of what key I should be singing in is limited, but I expect I'll get a feel for it once I do more Karaoke.
The place we were at also had Nomi-houdai, which means all the alcohol you can drink (off of their alcohol menu) but in this case the drinks were so weak it was more like an all you can drink random soda selection. In the Karaoke booth, there is a small portable entry screen which allows you to enter the name of an artist and get all of their songs (that the Karaoke place has). Luckily two of the four people with our group knew exactly how to use the machine, so we were able to select our songs on the entirely Japanese menus. Then, once the song goes through (both English and Japanese songs are featured), you read it off of a large, flatscreen which has all of the words written in their native language with Furigana on top. This means that even the songs with Kanji can be read if you can read Hiragana and Katakana.
Unfortunately, while I can read Hiragana and Katakana, I read it like a mentally deficient second grader, ie, very very sloooooowly. So I couldn't really keep up with the Japanese songs I picked though it was fun to try. My rendition of Crystal Kay's “Think of You” was a slow motion disaster. Larc-en-ciel's driver's high was a bit better, in part because I also had a friend join me. I think this is defintely going to be my road to reading and typing in Japanese! What's also nice about the booths is that you really can do lots of songs in an hour, and with your friends the experience is ridiculously fun. Also the sound setup is amazing. In the other sense though, the booths do make Karaoke less of a “meeting people” experience. We are all in our own little booth bubbles, bonding with existing circles of friends. I am definitely going to be doing a LOT more Karaoke in Japan (note from the future: gonna head out tonight, Monday, after our welcome party) but I think that Karaoke is not going to be my vehicle to meet random strangers. I'm gonna have to find my local bar for that. All of these things I'd already suspected, and it is good to have them confirmed.
After Karaoke, we went to a video arcade where we played this mad awesome drumming game. My partner is a professional drummer, so he set it to major hard “muzukashii”. I barely hit anything (as we were playing as partners) but it didn't matter because it was great fun. I especially enjoyed “Train, Train, Train” the song, which was super cute and fun! (and a bit easier to know when to hit the drum).
After that, it was off to bed and ready for another rousing day of orientation! Let's play a game—Yay!
Pictures are Posted to my Facebook Album: Nagoya Day 2
Next Entry: More Orientation and the Long Walk for Hawaiian Food.
Upcoming: It's The Little Things; Musings on Differences between Nagoya and Philly.
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