Happy 2nd Year To Me!

credit: http://www.oocities.org/honey-pig/Dora_Postcards.html

Yesterday marked my second year in Japan. Time seemed to have flown fast from that day when my feet landed at Narita Airport. On that day, my life was packed in two big suitcases along with my family's and friends' prayers and love in my heart. These two suitcases helped me start my life here. The love and the prayers helped me survive. I'll go back with more than two suitcases. I'll go back with more than who I was two years ago.

Living abroad, away from the familiar and the comfortable tested my character and values. I learned more about myself than all the other years in my life combined.


I learned that...

1. I'm better than I expected.

Coming here to Japan made me discover things about myself. I'm not as shy as I think I was. I've discovered how sociable and tolerant I can be. I'm not a bad cook as I thought I was. I can actually rustle a great meal for friends, especially. I'm not as dependent of others as I thought I was. I can be happy living alone, going places alone, eating alone and even watching a movie alone. I can do things on my own and find enjoyment in it! My job uncovered a creative side I never thought I have. I'm more faithful to my boyfriend than I thought I was. Distance did not diminish how I feel for him but it just made the heart grew fonder. And I realized that I know more about the world than I thought. I have more common sense than I thought.

2. Money is not as important as I think it was. 

Money is my main reason for coming here. I'm earning 5 times (or more) than I what I used to earn in the Philippines. I thought I could do this job for a long time for the money but I don't think my soul will thrive. Being an ALT is fun for a time but I don't think I'm supposed to this forever. There is more out there. Maybe not more for my pocket but more for my heart and soul. After this year, I'm ready to face the MORE for my heart and soul. Money is important but it can't buy a lot of things.

3. Home can be anywhere in the world. 

When I first came to Japan, I'd consider the Philippines as my home. My family is there. My boyfriend is there. My friends are there. My life is there. Or so I thought. But when I visited in March last year, I also missed my friends here. I also look forward to going back, it's crazy. Japan is my home too. You know the saying, "Home is where the of  heart is,"? Well, a part of my heart is in the Philippines and the other part in Japan. Where I am loved, I think that is home. I am loved in the Philippines and I am loved in Japan.

4. God provides. Always. 

If somebody asked me the greatest experience I have living in Japan, I'd say that it pushed me closer to God. It made me see how His grace and favor in my life. It made me feel loved more than ever. Just when I decided to go abroad, Japan suddenly opened its doors to Filipino English teachers. I roamed around Japan in my first three months because of work but leisure was also included. All my travel expenses were paid. This is not common for ALT's. I was eventually assigned in a nice place- not as big as Tokyo to be expensive but not as rural as other places for me to be lonely. God even surrounded me with a real nice group of friends who love to travel and who want to grow in faith.

Not only God provided me with my tangible needs but He has given me immeasurable things. He has given me creativity to do my job well. I can't believe how I was able to conceive the classroom activities I do here. He has comforted me in times of loneliness. He has allowed me to help others. He strengthened me in my sickness. (God knows how many times I complained about my back). He guarded my heart from temptations. He has given me that peace that I'll survive Japan. I'm surviving life here in Japan because of His faithfulness.

Knowing that God provides for ALL I need is empowering. It helped me realize how He led me into this country and how I need not be afraid to also go. God's provision is not only limited to Japan. Wherever I am, God will provide my needs like He always did. I'm not anymore scared to give up the comfortable lifestyle I got used to here. Living and working in Japan has been great but it's also just another season of my life that I should learn to slowly let go.

As I usher in my 3rd and last year in this place, my heart is expectant that this is going to be the best year of my life in Japan. I'm two years wiser and two years better!

Piles of Paper: How Japanese Teachers Waste Time

There's a growing pile of unused worksheets on my desk. As much as I don't want to waste paper, I have to dispose of them soon. Sorry Mother Nature but these worksheets are all going to the shredder. I made them hoping to use them in my classes. They were left unanswered because apparently, there's no more time to do them. This is what one of my Japanese teacher said, at least. After asking me to make worksheets and photocopy them, she told me that "Sorry, there's no more time."

credit: http://simonandersonfitness.co.uk/are-you-an-ask-hole/

Because I'm a foreigner and I'm just an assistant teacher, I smiled politely and told her it was okay. It wasn't, of course. More than the effort of doing the worksheets, I hate wasting anything. I hate wasting paper. And I hate wasting paper just because someone (the teacher I work with) wasted a lot of time in class doing unrelated things to English.

I'd perfectly understand her "Sorry, there's no more time," if it was true. Fact is, we spent a lot of nonsense things in her classes that we end up rushing in the last minutes of the class. She wasn't the first Japanese teacher that's like this. Half of the Japanese teachers I've worked with so far are wasting so much time during English time. It's no wonder the students are not learning as much as they can.

It's no secret that Japan ranked the lowest in English proficiency in Asia. Before I came here, I thought maybe it wasn't that bad. But it is. I teach junior high school students but I can't carry a conversation for more than 10 minutes. My Japanese would run out and their English would run out too. There are even some students who still struggle with basic questions such as "What's your name?," "What's your class?," and "Where do you live?" etc., etc. These are junior high school.

There are a lot of factors why the Japanese can't speak English as well as their Asian neighbors. For the sake of this entry, I'll focus on how teachers spend English time in the classroom. Some Japanese teachers of English are really good. They maximize the time with lots of speaking and listening activities. They teach more than what's in the textbook (cause their textbook really sucks!) and they demand more from the students. These kind of teachers are not that common, sadly. The most common are teachers who need to learn how to use English time more effectively. They waste a lot of time and waste a lot of worksheets.

Classroom (Mis)Management

Here are the common time-wasters in an English class in Japan:

1. Singing songs over and over again
Singing English songs is a fun way to expose students to the language. We're currently hitting high notes with "Let It Go." The problem is some teachers make English class as music class. They'd spend about 10-15 minutes singing the same song. This is to think that they'd usually sing the same song for one month. Also, the teachers don't even demand students to "really sing." Most students would just look at their song sheets and sing quietly to themselves I can barely hear them. The only voices I can hear are the teacher's and mine. I don't know why we bother to sing.

2. Reading the same short passage over and over again
Not only do we sing songs repeatedly but we also read the same short and simple passage.

Here's a sample reading passage from a third year JHS English texbook:

English textbook in Japan for 3rd year JHS

Imagine reading that passage for 20 minutes or more. Just reading it orally. I tell you, it's so boring and almost insulting. That's what some teachers do here. Not only do students need to read it repeatedly, they also have to memorize it. I don't know for what purpose they can use it.

3. Chatting and joking with the students
I'm sure this not only happens in Japanese classrooms. A lot of teachers all over the world spend considerable amount of time chatting and joking with their students. There's no problem with that except when 40 minutes class time out of 50 was spent on that. This happens, though. In my previous school, there's a teacher who likes to look cool with his students. He'd just chat the whole time. Even the students know it's story time when it's his class. The teacher who asked me to do the worksheets also likes to chat the time away.

4. Complicating grammar 
English grammar is complicated as it is. So many rules and so many exceptions  to the rules. In Japan, however, grammar looks a lot more complicated than it actually is. They use a lot of symbols that I don't even remember using in Math classes.

Here's an example:

credit: http://japaneseruleof7.com/teach-english/

The longer the sentences, the more symbols there would be. By the way, this is based on a 2nd year JHS lesson. You see, teachers spend so much time on one specific grammar point that students miss other grammar points. To give you an idea, the grammar point in the lesson above is the use of "his." They'd probably study the use of "his" for a week before moving on to the use of "her" for one week too. Then they'd proceed with "we" for a week and "they" for another week. That's a whole month just studying 4 subjective pronouns when they could just study all of them and more within a week or less.


The growing pile of worksheets on my desk is not just a pile of papers. It's a story of how some teachers waste a lot of time in class. It's understandable if it happens once or twice but if it happens pretty regularly, something is amiss. Sad thing is, I can't really do anything about this. Maybe I should stop making worksheets. Cause there might be no time and Mother Nature would soon get me for wasting paper.

Wanted: Cheaper Leo Palace in Hamamatsu

I'm currently looking for a new apartment. However, the confusing rental system in Japan is making my search unnecessarily difficult. Not only the search is difficult but also the moving out and everything in between.

Now the reason why I want to find a new place is to cut back expenses. I have a 2-year leasing contract with my current Leo Palace Apartment. It will expire in August. If I want to renew my contract, I have to pay 20,000 Yen Contract Renewal Fee plus 20,000+ Yen Fire Insurance. That's already 40,000 Yen, almost a month worth of rent. A smarter thing to do, I think, is find a cheaper Leo Palace apartment so I don't have to pay the contract renewal and the fire insurance.

My plan sounds perfect except for frustrating things about Leo Palace. Here are some of them.

1. You can't reserve an apartment for a month. 

I emailed Leo Palace's customer service last Saturday. I was asking for assistance in finding a cheaper apartment around Hamamatsu Station. The representative replied quickly with three choices. I like one of the choices and emailed back that I'm interested to see one of the apartments. The rep set an appointment for Monday.

Monday came and the staff said that the apartment was already taken. She said I should have reserved it ASAP because it was a good deal. This annoyed me. Why wasn't I told about it? Why set an appointment when they're already keen on renting it out to a different person?

Not only my time wasted but they also informed me that once I selected an apartment I should move within a week. They can't hold it for a longer period of time. I looked at the rep frustratingly with the word SERIOUSLY? written on my face. In essence, once a new apartment is available, I should grab it and pay for it though I wouldn't use it yet. Because...

2. You can't leave your current apartment without a month's notice. 

The reason why I can't move within a week is it is also Leo Palace's policy to give a month's notice before a leasing contract's termination. The rep said that they need time to schedule the apartment check. I can only sigh with her reason. What if there's an emergency and the tenant just needs to leave? And can't they just check it without the tenant? So much fuss, I think. I don't know the rental system in other countries but in the Philippines, you can leave in less than a month.

3. Rental prices are not stable.

This is the most unreasonable thing of all. I asked if there are available apartments in the same building where the rep saw a cheaper apartment. I assumed that since it's the same building, there would be little differences in the price. For some unknown reason, units at Leo Palace have different rental prices. There was a unit in the same building on the same floor but the price is 5000 Yen more expensive. It doesn't make sense!

Not only that, depending on the time you'll move, prices can differ greatly too. So the rep said, if I move in now I'll pay 10,000 Yen cheaper than when I move in a week or a month after. What the heck! It doesn't make sense at all. Will something happen to the apartment in  a month's time?

I left Leo Palace office accomplishing nothing. Now you may ask why I can't just find another real estate company. The reason is Leo Palace can lease their apartments without key money* and without guarantor.** If only I know other companies, I'd like to try renting with them. I think there should be more companies in small cities like Hamamatsu competing with Leo Palace. Cause their policies just don't make sense. But then, this is Japan. A lot of things don't really make sense. At least to me.

So as of this writing, I'm still looking for an apartment.

*Key money- Courtesy money given to the landlord. It's like a thank-you payment for them allowing you to use their place. Usually worth a month's rent.

**Guarantor- Someone who can vouch for you to the landlord, preferably a Japanese.

PS: I'll probably write on things that don't make sense in Japan next time.


More on Renting in Japan:

Rent an Apartment in Tokyo, Japan