008. bucket list: japan edition

Things I want to accomplish before leaving Japan:

1. Visit all 4 islands (& Okinawa):
   •   Hokkaido Feb ’12
   •   Honshu Sept ’11—Feb ’12; Aug ’14—present
   •   Shikoku Jul ’15
   •   Kyushu Mar ’15
   •   Okinawa
2. Attempt to visit all 47 prefectures of Japan:
   •   Hokkaido
   •   Tohoku: Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, Fukushima
   •   Kanto: Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa
   •   Chubu: Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Yamanashi, Nagano, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi
   •   Kansai: Mie, Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, Wakayama
   •   Chugoku: Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi
   •   Shikoku: Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime, Kochi
   •   Kyushu: Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa
3. Eat the following:
   •   Kobe beef Mar ’15
   •   horse meat Jul ’12; Mar ’15
   •   fugu Mar ’15
   •   live octopus
   
4. Eat ramen and/or oden at a yatai (food stall). Fukuoka trip Mar ’15
5. Perform a taiko concert.
6. Watch a sumo match.
7. Watch a baseball match. Hanshin Tigers vs Hiroshima Carp @ Kyocera Dome Aug ’16
8. Spend a day in Kyoto wearing a kimono. Apr ’16
9. Do a geisha/maiko photoshoot. Feb ’16
10. Ride the shinkansen. Nov ’15 Tokyo—Osaka
11. Go to the following cafés:
    •   cat café Dec ’11
    •   bunny café
    •   owl café Aug ’15
    •   reptile café Nov ’16
    •   maid and/or butler café Sep ’16
12. Go to a host club.
13. Wear my yukata during a summer festival. Yuasa Festival Aug ’15, Aug ’16
14. See the following singers/groups/bands live:
    •   Big Bang YG Family concert Jan ’12; Japan Dome Tour ‘X’ Jan ’15; 
    •   F.T Island 5th Anniversary Arena Tour 5…..GO Jun ’15
    •   2NE1 YG Family concert Jan ’12
    •   iKON iKONCERT 2016: SHOWTIME Tour Feb ’16
    •   WINNER
    •   Hey!Say!JUMP
    •   alice nine.
    •   ONE OK ROCK
15. Attend a fanmeeting meet an idol up close. F.T Island Hi Touch event Jun ’15
16. Pass JLPT N2. Dec ’15
17. Pass JLPT N1.
18. Go cherry blossom viewing (hanami). Apr ’15
19. Stay the night in a manga café. Nov ’15
20. Go up Tokyo Sky Tree.
21. Go to the Sapporo Snow Festival. Feb ’12
22. Visit the following islands:
    •   Tashirojima (cat island – Miyagi)
    •   Okunoshima (bunny island – Hiroshima) Sep ’16
    •   Zao Kitsune Village (fox island – Miyagi)
23. Stay in a capsule hotel. Jan ’15; Jun ’15
24. Climb Mt. Fuji. July ’12 
25. Visit Jigokudani Monkey Park in Nagano.
26. Visit the following Ghibli-related areas:
    •   Ghibli Museum 
    •   Satsuki and Mei’s house (Aichi) May ’16
    •   Sprited Away’s bathhouse inspiration (Dogo Onsen – Matsuyama) Shikoku trip Jul ’15
    •   Sprited Away’s town inspiration (Jiufen – Taiwan) Taiwan trip Sep ’15
    •   Mononoke’s Forest (Kusugawa Trail – Yakushima)
    •   Whisper of the Heart’s setting (Seiseki-Sakuragaoka – Tokyo)
    •   Totoro’s Forest (Sayama Hills – Saitama)
27. Visit the lavender/flower fields (Furano & Biel) in Hokkaido.
28. Go to a dessert buffet. Apr ’16
29. Go to a summer rock festival.
30. Volunteer over the summer.
31. Attend Japan’s three biggest festivals:
    •   Gion Festival (Kyoto)
    •   Chichibu Night Festival (Saitama)
    •   Takayama Festival (Gifu)
32. Finish a Japanese novel.
33. Go on a Detective Conan Mystery Tour.

last update: 2016-12-17

007. “we are good friends”

I don’t like to talk about work too much on here, because in most cases it’ll just be me complaining about one thing or another. Not that I don’t like my job or living in Japan (I love it, actually), it’s just that as humans, we tend to dwell on the negatives instead of the positives. But I guess, I wanted to make a note of this while it’s still fresh my memory.

My 6th graders at my biggest school just finished performing their plays today. It wasn’t anything too serious, they only performed it within their own class and there weren’t any big props or anything. For those who are familiar with the infamous Hi, Friends! textbook that we use in Japanese elementary schools, this was for Book 2, Lesson 7 “We are good friends”. This is the lesson that everyone seems to hate. From what I’ve heard, most ALTs think it’s pointless, and skip it if possible. I can definitely see where they’re coming from though — whether this lesson is successful or not, is hugely dependent on both the HRT and the students. I was a little worried considering the negativity, but I decided to ask my HRTs to see what they thought. We went ahead with it, but instead of doing Momotaro only, we decided to do five different stories. Because seeing the same play over and over again would be boring, right?

I worked together with my HRTs and we choose the following stories (based on the number of characters, how well they are known, ease of adapting into play etc): Momotaro, Big Turnip, Three Little Pigs, Cinderella and Snow White. Then I wrote the scripts, dialogue, and translated them into Japanese (in the end, my HRTs had to do so much correcting that I think it would’ve been faster if they had just translated it for me from the start, hah). I confirmed that it wasn’t too difficult, yet at the same time enough dialogue for the story to make sense.

We spent 6 weeks on this lesson. The first week, I briefly went over a few fairytales/folktales in English, just to get them into the whole idea. Then we (i.e, my HRT and I) told them that we will actually be performing the plays, and to make it fair, decided the parts via kuji (lottery). We handed out scripts during the second week. Of course, since my kids can’t read, they basically had to listen to me saying the dialogue, then transcribing into katakana if necessary. Both my classes at this school has 35+ kids… so it would’ve been impossible for me to go around repeating dialogues for everyone within the span of 45 minutes. Instead, my HRTs recorded me saying the dialogue and burned it onto CDs for each group. Let’s just say it was very weird hearing my voice repeatedly in every corner of the room…

After that, they had about 3 weeks to practice the dialogue, remember it, create props if they wanted to, figure out gestures, and somehow turn it into a play. Japanese kids are very shy (or maybe it’s just my kids), so getting them out of their comfort zone was the biggest challenge. We were worried that it would turn out horribly, but that wasn’t the case. It was quite the opposite actually. Some went all out with their props; used desks/chairs in lieu of houses; used music during certain parts. They were amazing. Of course, none of them were perfect. Some forgot their lines, spurted out Japanese instead, had their back to the audience… but most importantly, they laughed, and they had fun. Some of them commented that they were really happy to have so much fun in English — and that’s what us elementary ALTs aim for, right?

When we were cleaning up at the end, one girl asked if I was going to cry at the graduation ceremony. And it just reminded me that, I only have 3 more lessons with these kids before they go off to junior high. They’re my absolute favourites, and I’m so sad that I won’t be teaching them come April. I thought I was done and dusted with graduations since getting my university degree. But it looks like there’ll be more to come.

Note: ALT = assistant language teacher, HRT = homeroom teacher.

edit 2015-03-19; I did the same lesson with another school with less students, and  it didn’t go as well. The students weren’t interested, seemed bored, and pretty much just stood there reading off the scripts (with katakana English) during their “performance”. I think I lucked out with my biggest school.

006. big bang japan dome tour ‘x’

170115: the day I went to Big Bang’s Japan Dome Tour ‘X’ 2014~2015 in Osaka, held at Kyocera Dome. (Woo, late report!) It wasn’t my first time seeing them perform live — my first (and only time before my most recent concert) was during a YG Family concert back in 2011. I had been waiting for the day ever since I found out about their tour back in October of last year, and opted for fanclub tickets in hopes of getting better seats. I headed to the venue early that day so I could purchase concert goods, and arrived just a bit after 12.30pm. The wait time wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated — I was done shopping in about an hour. It was, however, long enough for me to ponder way too hard about what goods to purchase… and ended up with 5 items as opposed to the only 2 I had in mind. Oops. But, no regrets, no regrets.

After checking into our hotel, getting ready, and meeting up with friends, we came back to the dome at 4pm. When the tickets arrived about a week prior, I couldn’t figure out exactly where we were seated. I had never been to Kyocera Dome before, and the website/charts were too complicated to navigate. So when the usher pointed towards a set of stairs that lead us down instead of up, we could barely contain our excitement. Our seats ended up being right next to the main stage that extended out, between the halfway point and the end. Seriously, we were so close that we could see each individual member’s faces while they performed on stage! I cannot believe we were so fortunate to receive such amazing seats. (Thank you to the first person who didn’t want to sell their tickets to me!)

The concert started just a bit past 5pm with iKon performing the opening act. I’m not familiar with iKon at all — the only member I vaguely know is Bobby, and that’s only because he was featured in a song with Lee Hi and Soohyun from AKMU (plus, he has the same name as my brother). Big Bang started their night with Fantastic Baby and the fans went absolutely insane (me included!) I swear I was about to cry when I saw Taeyang emerge from the stage ohhhmygod them feels. (I’ll try not to fangirl too much). Throughout the night, they performed many of my favourite songs (such as Haru Haru, Lies and My Heaven) and I could not be more happy with the setlist. I didn’t expect to like their Love Song performance as much as I did (it ended up being one of my favourites of the night) — I love how it’s such a serious song, yet everyone was just being silly, doing whatever they wanted to make the fans laugh, and it genuinely looked like they were having a blast on stage. My other favourite performance was Good Boy — GD and Taeyang absolutely nailed it.

I also enjoyed the speaking and fan interaction parts of the concert a lot. Even though they didn’t come anywhere near us (sadface), it was amazing being able to understand them, respond, and laugh at their jokes. Seungri’s Japanese really surprised me — I know that he appears on Japanese talk shows often, but hearing it impromptu on stage is completely different. They seem to like foreign fans a lot — next time I attend their concert, I’m bringing a New Zealand flag with me! Maybe also dye my hair blonde and wear blue contacts. Oh, and Dara showed up too! Not to perform, but as a fan attending the concert. She’s super cute!

The encore performance was absolutely incredible — there was still so much energy, despite it nearing the end of the show. I loved the idea of Seungri DJ-ing, and each member performed a solo of their’s. Both him and Daesung are much more charismatic in real life than on screen in my opinion. TOP is just as good looking as he is marketed to be (still can’t dance to save his life though, hah) and GD seemed very humble and genuine, especially when he thanked all of us for waiting three years for a come back. He promised that this year will be that year (YG even confirmed it himself!) And Taeyang — words cannot even describe how perfect he is. His voice, looks, the way he dances… including the lame jokes that he cracked throughout the concert (Kinryuu ramen, anyone?), everything. (Can you tell who’s my favourite?) iKon joined them on stage at the very end and they performed Sinosijak together. Despite their senior/junior relationship, the performance was very smooth, and everyone looked like they were enjoying themselves.

Overall, it was an amazing three+ hours, well worth the extra money I spent to get those fanclub tickets. I cannot wait for Big Bang’s come back this year — it’s going to be epic! (And if that means another tour in Japan… well, I’m definitely going!)

Setlist: (unofficial) 

1. Long Time No See — iKon
2. Sinosijak — iKon
3. Fantastic Baby
4. Tonight
5. Stupid Liar
6. Blue
7. Haru Haru
8. Gara Gara GO!!
9. Top of the World
10. Number 1
11. Knock Out — GD & TOP
12. High High — GD & TOP
13. Bad Boy
14. Tell Me Goodbye
15. Cafe
16. Lies
17. Love Song
18. Good Boy — GD & Taeyang
19. Hands Up
20. Feeling
21. My Heaven
22. Koe wo Kikasete

Encore:

23. Baby Baby
24. Strong Baby — Seungri
25. Doom Dada — TOP
26. RINGA LINGA — Taeyang
27. Crooked — G-Dragon
28. Look at Me, Gwisun — Daesung
29. Fantastic Baby
30. Sinosijak — with iKon

002. looking back

Despite it barely being half a week since I stepped foot again onto Japanese grounds, I miss the warmth of Singapore & Malaysia already. I miss travelling, the taste of authentic Chinese food (a craving that is hard to satisfy in Japan), I miss the stress-free mindset and the freedom that comes with being on holiday.

While I’d love to blog about my little trip, I do want to start off the new year by writing a little review of 2014 (cliché much?). I started off 2014 by attending my cousin’s wedding (which was also my first wedding ever!), and spending time with family in Macau, Hong Kong & China. I went back to work again soon after arriving back in New Zealand, and repeated the same routine everyday for over half a year (after already doing it for a year prior). Considering the economy in the last few years and the number of unemployed graduates floating around in the job market, I was fortunate to have landed a role in a respectable company soon after finishing uni. But I never really enjoyed working in the insurance industry — I was always complaining about the not-so-nice customers; exhausted at the expectations; tired of the repetitiveness of it all…

I wanted change.

And I was determined to do it. The process was stressful, nerve-wrecking, and (for the lack of a better word) long — but I did it. I moved to a new country, started a completely new job I had zero experience in; removing myself from the comfort of a stable, decent paying job back home (that I had no passion for). I’m not even sure right now if I have a passion for teaching or not, but I’d rather see my kids smile knowing that they’re having fun learning English, compared to barely being acknowledged after saving someone a couple of hundred dollars on their insurance premium. I’m using Japanese way more than I ever have before, and with that comes improvement. I would love to become even better, but rather than setting this as a New Year’s resolution, this is an ongoing goal for me. No matter where I am, how long I stop using it, I will always try to improve my Japanese. I’ve also done a little bit of travelling — while not very far, I’ve now been to a few more places in Japan that I hadn’t been to before. And of course, Singapore and Malaysia!

Now that’s not to say 2014 didn’t have its struggles. This year was probably the hardest for me and the boyfriend. At the beginning of the year, he moved to Australia to look for a job. His plan was to come back in 6 months time if it didn’t work out, but we both knew that there was the possibility of me moving to Japan as well, so we were potentially heading towards a long term, long distance relationship. We’re not complete amateurs when it comes to long distance — he was away for 3 months 2 summers in a row (total 6 months) for an internship in China, and I had my half a year exchange in Tokyo. Including last year (it feels sort of strange typing that!), out of the 5 years we’ve been together, almost 2 years of it has been long distance. I’m a believer of long distance relationships, but that doesn’t mean it’s not hard. Sometimes I don’t miss him as much as I feel like I should, or I don’t miss him at all. I don’t always feel the need to see or talk to him. And that feeling of… not feeling has bothered me for a very long time. I was scared that my feelings were fading, scared that I was falling out of love, scared that I’d make a stupid decision and regret it for years to come. Isn’t it strange that, I wanted change in my life, yet I was so afraid of this aspect of it changing at all?

Without getting into too much detail, meeting him in Singapore after not really having had time together in almost a year… well, my feelings haven’t changed at all, and I think it’s going to stay that way for a very, very long time. I’ve realised that it’s okay to not miss your significant other once in a while. It’s okay to not talk to him 24/7, and have time to yourself. Because it doesn’t mean your feelings are less genuine, less real. It just means that you experience love a little differently to others.

This year, I want to stop worrying. I want to be free, I want to feel as if there’s nothing weighing me down. I don’t intend on making Japan my permanent home — so while I’m here, I want to enjoy a stress-free life as much as possible; travel to as many places as I can; and hopefully find out what direction I would like to head towards when it’s time for me to step back into the real world.

Here’s to 2015.