Older and still far away

Greetings one and all. I can’t believe it has been four months since my last post. I had the intention of blogging a little more frequently but with the excessive worry and rushing around of the past few months, it has been tough. Around the start of October I wrote a list to try and organise my worries, which were starting to bury me, and that list numbered into the double figures. The general stresses of work and life ended up only being one point so you can see how the blog kind of fell by the wayside. However, with four more working days until the beginning of the winter holidays, hopefully this thing won’t be so neglected. Obviously with all of the stress and worry, relaxation is the main thing I will be doing for the next few weeks. Besides that, I have no plans. It makes a slight change from the last few months and I wouldn’t be surprised if I find myself lost over the break. There will probably be some onsen-ing (is that even a word? can I make it one?) and a possible roadtrip to somewhere new but mostly I will be hibernating.

So what exactly have I been doing that has led to all of this? Well, mostly a lot of paperwork and annoying life crap like my real estate company changing hands and having to organise a lot of things with that (all done in Japanese I might add – rather proud on that account). But there have been some bright sparks like the Return To Kiwi – ie. the 2011 Horado Kiwi Marathon. The worry that came before that however was that I had some ligament/cartilage problems in my knee about six weeks before meaning that I couldn’t train very much. However, small steps and I began to feel I could run well. That is until I attempted to test my knee out with a 10km jog and around the 8.5km mark I had to stop since I felt some serious sharp pains. But since accomplishing last year’s Kiwi had been such a positive thing for me,  I felt I couldn’t give up so easily and saved my knee for one day only – race day. I’m glad that I had not listened to the voice of reason in my head that told me not to do it because I managed to run it out and knock three minutes of my time from last year and improve by 50 places. There naturally was a celebratory beer afterwards. Outside of that, I haven’t done much of note. This year I have really settled down and not galavanted about as I did last year so adventures have been few and far between.

I guess another reason for my lack of adventure is that I have been attending a lot of school related activites like music festivals, sporting club games, festivals and other things. I’ve tried to throw myself about in Yamagata and I think in that regard I have succeeded. It’s not unusual to find me there every weekend doing something school related or studying in the local library. It’s a wonderful area and I’m glad I’ve had the chance to experience it. However, like I said in my last post, I still have feelings of ‘I’m done.’ Not with Japan per se, but with my schools I feel I have done my job. I think that if I leave at the end of this year, I will be leaving on a high. I am happy with the year 6 students I would be sending off to junior high school and feel that since I have had them over the two important years, with regards to English in primary school, ending now is a good way to leave things. I also think that the students need the opportunity to have someone else teach them too. Someone who perhaps offers them a new take on things and can show them something that I perhaps am not. Also for me personally, I feel frustrated with the way English is taught in primary school in Japan. Students sometimes learn completely useless things and while they can repeat back what you have taught them, they don’t learn how to construct a sentence or understand how sentences and grammar work with the current curriculum. And while making English fun is a good thing and I try to make English as fun as possible, it can’t just be focused and getting smiles from kids –  there has to be some substance. All of that is frustrating because at that age, it is a wonderful chance to get them learning a foreign language. I try as hard as I can to fill that gap, but with no proper training, both in general and the ‘training’ from my company, I sometimes feel like I’m teaching with one hand tied behind my back.

Ok rant over, what next? Well, in spite of the above words I am thinking of doing the ALT thing for one more year somewhere else. I’ve got an interview for a job in a few weeks in a different part of the country which offers me more money (a big factor in why I’m looking around too) and a chance to get involved more. But I’m also looking around Gifu too for jobs since I have come to like the region a lot – which entails the somewhat scarily sounding possibility of kindergarten teaching. I am also thinking of going back to Aus for a few months, getting a good TEFL/TESOL or whateverhaveyou and then jetting off for a new challenge with a bit of knowledge under my belt. But honestly, I’m unsure of which path out of these and many more would be best. It’s a little food for thought over winter holidays.

But I leave this post with a little bit of music…

And by the way, I have no hair now. It’s an interesting change. I kind of wonder what my crazy thing will be next year…

Until next time…