Showing posts with label Hiroshima. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hiroshima. Show all posts

A Day at Hiroshima Castle
HOLY CRAP.
Two whole posts in a single week!
LOOK AT THAT.

How many people want to bet that this never happens again?


Anyway.

Let's talk about Hiroshima.
As I mentioned months ago, I accepted a position at a junior/senior high school on the west side of Hiroshima City. It's a really nice school, though the current class of 8th graders makes me want to rub my face against a cheese grater on a regular basis. My supervisor seems to feel the same way. The new 7th grade class is full of awesome kids, and I've heard great things about the other four grades, though I do not teach them. I am having a blast.


Since getting here, my husband and I have made an effort to get more acquainted with Hiroshima City in general. Gifu was not nearly as big of a city, and it cost nearly twice as much to get down to Nagoya City so we never really explored as much as we probably should have.

We've been here for almost sixth months. In the past six months we've explored our little neighborhood, and have explored a small chunk of downtown. We've also been to Miyajima twice, but we still have a lot more to go. I have an unprecedented three two-day weekends this month.

Three.

 I am estatic.
We're going to try to rent a car next weekend (the 16th and 17th) and drive out to Okayama to visit the Bizen Osafune Sword Museum and Token Village.
Because they have a scale model of the Lance of Longinus from Neo Genesis Evangelion.
Monday the 17th (a national holiday) is the last day, so we have to go.
I have friends who will stop talking to me if we don't go.

Ahem.
BACK ON TOPIC WE GO.

In May, Japan had it's great Golden Week, which is three days in a row of national holidays at beginning of May, plus a national holiday on April 29th. Many companies and schools give the entire period from the 29th to May 5th off, making it one of the busiest times of the year to travel.

But that's not the point.

The point is, YAY NO WORK.

The first day, we hung out at the Flower Festival down at the Peace Park. Wasn't sure what to expect, but it wasn't too bad. Ran into my school's baton club after they finished marching in the parade and had a lot of giggles from the girls about my being married. Didn't stay too long, but have plans to go again next year.

The second day, we headed over to Hiroshima Castle for the first time.
Now, I love castles.
I mean, love castles.
I've been to: Matsumoto, Ueda ruins, Yatsushiro Ruins, Kumamoto, Shimabara, Hirado, Gifu, Kano ruins, Gujo Hachiman, Ogaki, Ogura ruins, Nagoya, Osaka, Nijo, and Inuyama. I guess you can even include the Imperial Palace in Kyoto.
We have plans to get to Himeji (even if it will still be under restoration) while we are living in Hiroshima. And any other castle or castle ruins I can find in the neighboring prefectures.

Even if it is a rebuilt replica, if it's a castle, I want to go.
I just love walking around the grounds. I love the gardening, and I love the architecture.
The grounds around Hiroshima Castle and the moat are just lovely for a picnic, or for a quiet day in the shade with a good book. There's even a jogging course around the moat and through the adjoining park.

For only being there a few hours, I took a metric ton of photos.
I nearly maxed out my 4GB SD card. With only JPEGs. Go me.

Here are some of the best, including two I messed around with in HDR software:


HDR of the main gate!


HDR of the main castle tower. So glad those clouds cleared up quickly.


There was a bunker on the ground with a bunch of high school girls who had been mobilized during the war effort. They were some of the first to radio in about the atomic bombing.


Best part about castles? The moat.






Chinese zodiac charms! I totally need to go back and get a bunch as presents for my cousins.
These were at the Gokoku Shrine next to the castle. On Children's Day, May 5th, they hold a crying baby sumo championship.
Yes. A crying baby sumo championship. Parents sign up their babies. Two get put into a "sumo ring" and the first one to cry wins.
No, I do not understand it, either.


Wish boards. Many of these were specifically to past tests.




All over the castle grounds were ruins and foundations of various military facilities that had been built leading up to and during World War II. One of the buildings was the Emperor's military headquarters for a while.




Now, as this is a full two-day weekend, I will hopefully have time to go through my photos from the last day of Golden Week and have a post of that up sometime Saturday or Sunday. When I'm not so tipsy. Have I mentioned that I've had two Suntory Strong Zero grape chu-hi? Yeah. I'm a bit tipsy.
9/08/2012 12:00:00 AM | Category: , , , , | 0 comments

Oh, wait, is this actually a post?
Holy cow, stop the presses. Chino is actually making a blog post.


For the first time in over two years.

Two. Years.


Yeah. It's about time.







There are several reasons for the untimely death of this blog. The main being a big misunderstanding between my boss and I as to what counts as "on the clock hours" and "adequate staffing". I guess two full-time teachers and a handful of unqualified part-timers is enough in her book to teach over 280 hours of class time a month, plus planning, lesson creation, and travel between classrooms. In reality, could have used a few more full-time teachers.



However, that will be behind me starting from the 23rd of this month.

Why?

I got a new job.

That's right. I have a new job. A better one. Not just in terms of pay, but in satisfaction levels and personal worth.

I will be starting a job as a full-time English teacher at a private joint Junior High/Senior High School on the west side of Hiroshima City. Far, far, far away from my current babysitting English School job.

I'll be leaving a lot of friends and memories behind, but I'll be moving on to a position that will help me further my career as a teacher. I'll be part of a qualified team of teachers holding actual teaching certificates in creating a curriculum. The school will be using an English textbook for the first time in years starting in April. Every detail I have heard about this job just creates an abundence of energy and excitement.

I get to be a real teacher. A real. Teacher. Like, in a classroom. In a school. With students. With classes that only I and my paired native co-teacher are in charge of.

No more seeing classes once a month if I'm lucky.
No more crisscrossing the city racing to get to three different classrooms in a single day with my only break time being my commute between classes.
No more having to pull lessons out of thin air because only two kids out of an eight person class showed up.

I get to have meaningful lessons with kids who want to learn and have the support of an experienced teaching team and a school that prides itself on personally tailored curriculum. Kids from this school scored the highest on a national writing test the past school year. Every single test taker got a perfect score.
Their test scores for grammar knowledge have been lacking, hence the start of a textbook, but that has mainly been due to the fact that national tests are set up in the same order as grammar is taught in textbooks. Without a textbook, the teachers have been bouncing around grammar topics as they see fit. This has resulted in the students knowing things "out of order" by Japanese standards. They'll know some things that are on the test, not known some things on the test, but know other things that aren't being tested yet. Moms in the PTA have gotten through the the principal and other members of the school board, so now a text book and weekly review sessions by a teacher of Japanese decent have been added to the curriculum.




Anyway. Enough about that. The reason I say that my current job is behind me starting the 23rd despite the new school year starting in April, is because the 23rd is my first training session at the new school.
My husband, Odin, Freya and I will be moving to Hiroshima sometime either March 21st or 22nd.
We're still looking for an apartment. We're going by night bus this Friday to look at apartment over the weekend. The company that hired me as a teacher for the school has already asked a real estate agent they know in the area to find us a good place, and I should hear back from them sometime this week. Hopefully we'll find something nice in our price range.



But as such, since I will no longer be affiliated with the job that prompted the start of this blog, I will be removing the link to the school in the top header bar. I may still do a few Japanese site reviews, but I think I shall try to turn this more into a personal blog. A place where I can air my mind out about things that perturb me about Japan, and a place to post photos. I'm also hoping that I'll have the time and energy to start posting over at Odin's Abode again. I have a year of photos of Odin and Freya that need to be edited and posted. They turn 3 on the 17th this month. They're huge and have gone through a lot in the past 6-8 months, so I have plenty to put on that blog once I have time.



So, I guess that's it for now. Come back from time to time starting in April to see if I've gotten into the flow of things and have started posting again. Hopefully there will be something here!
3/05/2012 10:43:00 PM | Category: , , , , , , | 1 comments