My new job

As I've now been working at my new job for a little over 2 months, I think it's high time I write a little update to let people know how it's going.

ECC is one of the largest English teaching companies in Japan.  In a previous blog I wrote about two week training in Tokyo (with a super fun group of fellow trainees!).  At the end of March I began observing classes at our Fukushima school, and I began teaching my first classes in April.

In a typical week I have 16 kids classes, 3 adult classes, and a handful of one-on-one adult lessons.  I teach all ages:  my students range from 2 years old to 72 years old.  While I taught several adult classes at Izumi Lutheran Church last year, this is my first real experience with kids classes.  The classrooms are small (when compared to a typical American classroom) and carpeted.  In the kids classes everything happens on the floor; there are no tables or chairs.  Depending on the age of the kids, we're running around, jumping up and down, crawling on all fours, playing games, and kneeling or sitting on tiny cushions for the entire lesson.  It's a lot of work for this 30+ year old man!  I was completely exhausted after my first couple weeks of teaching.

ECC "Kid's English World" - notice the lack of tables and chairs in these pictures

 
At ECC the kids classes are a complete English immersion experience.  That means that for the 60 minute class there's no Japanese allowed at all, not even to explain a specific instruction or a game.  I've definitely run into a few challenges because of this, particularly with my little 5 year-olds.  Trying to teach a game to kindergarteners is complicated enough when you're speaking the same language!  Add to that the fact that this is the first time they've taken an English class without their parents present.  What new adventure will each day of teaching bring!?  During the first two weeks of classes at least one of my littlest students would cry at the scary, bearded giant that greeted them with a big smile and a strange foreign language at the door of the classroom. . . It's gotten much better (thankfully!) but still these 5 year-old classes will be my biggest challenge this year, I think.  It's a good thing they're so darn cute!

Another challenge has been learning students' names.  I have over 90 children's names and faces to learn.  Remembering names is not my forte to begin with, and Japanese names are still a little tricky for me.  Sometimes when I'm lying in bed at night I'll mentally run through the list of kids in my classes that I had that day.  Is her name Ayako, Ayaka, Aiko, or Akiyo?  Is his name Haru, Haruki, Haruto, or Hayato?  Yikes!

My fellow co-workers at ECC in Fukushima are great!  There are two other native English-speaking teachers (my brother-in-law, Joel, and another man from England) and three very kind Japanese staff that do a TON of work to keep things at the school running smoothly.  There are also a few other Japanese teachers who teach English at our school.  It makes all the difference having such great people to work with - I definitely don't take it for granted.  One of the staff at ECC headquarters in Tokyo mentioned that the Fukushima school is one of the happiest schools in the company.  I believe it.  There's a lot of fun and smiles every day at work!

Another perk:  my commute to work.  Do you remember my "Thursday Commute" blog last year?  Well, my daily commute to work this year is about 10 minutes on foot. . . . 7 minutes if I really 'hoof it' !

The extra income is also a blessing for Haidee and me.  However, working at ECC also means extra expenses. . . . like clothing, for instance.  After only 6 weeks of teaching kids classes (kneeling and crawling around on the carpeted floor) I found a hole in the knee of one of my brand new pairs of slacks!  Haidee (being the very talented seamstress that she is) sewed a patch on in order to salvage the pants. . . but I won't be able to wear them to work again.  What was I going to do!?  I'd heard horror stories from other tall, foreign English teachers about trying to buy dress clothes in Japan.  The styles and cuts are different that what I'm used to, and to find a pair that actually fits, I was told, could turn out to be pretty pricey.

Imagine my surprise (and great relief!) when Haidee and I, at only the second store we stopped at, found not one, not two, but THREE pairs of pants that fit great and were all on sale for a grand total of less than $100.  I'm usually not even that lucky shopping in the States!  It looks like teaching kids classes won't burn a hole in my pocket, although it may burn a few more holes through the knees of my slacks. . .

A hole in my pants after only 6 weeks!  What am I going to do?

sporting the new clothes!

Golden Week Vacation

Everyone in Japan looks forward to Golden Week.  It always falls on the first week of May, and is connected with several Japanese national holidays (to find a list of the specific holidays, click here), so many people get the whole week off.  The English school at church and ECC (where I'm currently working) both take Golden Week vacation, so Haidee and I enjoyed a week of free time!  It's like a late Spring Break for us.

The first part of the week we took life at a leisurely pace:  we slept in, skyped with family, tried new restaurants, when shopping for some home improvement projects, and watched some movies.  It was SO nice!  We finished the week by traveling to Tokyo for a friend's wedding, and participating in another Kids Camp.  I'm not a man of many words, so I'll let the pictures tell the story:

We've been trying to optimize our kitchen space for a long time, so I was pretty excited about these 'home improvements'.  Notice the complete lack of counter space in our kitchen. . .

Home improvements part 2:  more shelves in the kitchen and pantry/clothing room.

The Hobbit just came out on DVD in Japan!  So we watched it a second time.

And a random picture of some chocolate, which we ate in plenty this week.

Movie number 2:  Tangled (actually titled "Rapunzel" in the Japanese version)

Bowling at Round One with Pamela and Joel.

Here's a picture of Pamela's bowling ball!  (Actually, Pamela also bowled, with Nathan in tow.  It was pretty impressive.)

Don't ask.  It's Japan.

Our friends Natsuko and Jaguup came over for dinner.  It was our first time to meet their new baby girl, Riina.

Haidee with baby Riina.

Haidee, Cindy, and I visited a friend in Yokohama, the port town just south of Tokyo.

Haidee in front of the bay.

Haidee and I found a fun amusement park, so we rode the Ferris Wheel.

Our friend, Efrain, and his wife, Seiko.  It was a beautiful wedding!

Kids Camp in Inawashiro.  The kids were a lot of fun!

One final movie, a classic!

Now it's back to our regular schedules.  The next vacation to look forward to is summer break in August!

Hanami Yama

Spring is here in Fukushima, and the Sakura trees are in full bloom!  Well, technically they were in full bloom last week (see pictures of the Sakura trees last year on a previous post) but the trees still look quite beautiful.

We decided to spend our free day indulging in a favorite Japanese pastime:  looking at spring blossoms.  We biked out to Hanami Yama (花見山), which means "flower-viewing mountain".  Apparently Hanami Yama is pretty well known throughout all of Japan as being a prime location to see an array of beautiful flowers and tree blossoms in the spring.  And it's only a 40 minute bike ride from our apartment!

We had never been to Hanami Yama before, so we (meaning Eric) carefully checked the directions to ensure that we would know how to get there.  But in reality, long before seeing the mountain, we saw a line of site-seeing buses and were joined by throngs of Japanese people toting cameras, bentos (bag lunches), maps, and little children.  We simply had to follow the crowds.  I can't imagine what it was like last week when the Sakura blossoms had just reached full bloom.

A 20 minute walk brought us to the entrance of the park.  Being the adventurous people that we are, we immediately set out on the most difficult path, hiking directly up the mountain, and against the flow of people traffic.  Later, upon receiving a map, we learned that (true to Japanese nature) there was a very specific course we were supposed to have followed to ascend the mountain.  Oh well!  The view at the top was incredible.  The photos don't do it justice, at all, but we thought we'd include a few, just to whet your appetite.  You'll have to come visit us next year to get the full effect!

Where a crowd gathers, one can usually find small shops selling yummy Japanese festival foods!

The 20 minute walk leading to the park entrance.

Hamani Yama - "Flower-viewing Mountain"

A beautiful view from the top.

We had a great view of Fukushima City and the mountains in the background.

This is my camera's sad attempt at a panoramic view of the mountain.  The actual site is absolutely beautiful!

We spotted a Japanese foot bath at the end of our hike.  Bliss.

For the beauty of the earth

For the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies.

Christ, our God,  to Thee we raise,

This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour,

Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale, and tree and flower,

Sun and moon, and stars of light.

Christ, our God,  to Thee we raise,

This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love,

Brother, sister, parent, child,

Friends on earth and friends above,

For all gentle thoughts and mild.

Christ, our God,  to Thee we raise,

This our hymn of grateful praise.

For each perfect gift of Thine,

To our race so freely given,

Graces human and divine,

Flowers of earth and buds of Heaven.

Christ, our God,  to Thee we raise,

This our hymn of grateful praise.

 

---Folliott S. Pierpoint (1835-1917)

"It is finished!"...?

The sun is shining, and blossoms are starting to color the trees with shades of pink, white, and yellow. Layers of colored gelatin are hardening slowly in the refrigerator for tomorrow's Easter luncheon at church. The day literally shouts of spring and new life and the hope that we will gather to celebrate in the morning.

But I'm still stuck in the darkness of Good Friday, my mind turning over yesterday's reflections and grieving.

"It is finished" (John 19:30).

We read those words of Jesus last night from the gospel of John and talked a bit about what it means for the work of salvation to really be finished...for us to know God's forgiveness has been victorious over our sin.

I want to say that I was listening to the discussion with a heart pierced with a sense of confession and God's love. I want to say that I was thankful, filled with gratitude. I want to say that it was meaningful and moving, and that in the depths of Good Friday's sadness I experienced the joy of being forgiven.

Confession: I was seething. As I listened to those around me describe in broken voices filled with awe the passion and love of our Savior, I was seething at life...at sin...at myself.

Is it really finished? Really?

Let me paint you a picture for a moment. My church has an average 18 worshipers on a Sunday. The main core of active members are over 75 years old. They come to church multiple times a week, volunteer at events, and try to support each other as best they can. But they are slowly getting weaker...that is the normal process of life. And when they come to church, they are encouraged to participate more, sacrifice more, look at things with spiritual eyes instead of physical eyes, grow in their active love for other people...and guilt abounds.

I am a pastor's daughter. I can't remember a time when a church has ever really said, "It is finished."

Just rest. Just be. It is enough.

We sacrifice sleep, time, health, relationships, money, hobbies, and more. Those who do are held up as "good Christians." Those who do not seem to be told they need to become more mature Christians.

Can the church even exist without putting such pressure on people? Although the church is the body of Christ, it is also an organization, needing money and resources and volunteers to make the wheels of the structure turn. The main message may be, "You are saved by grace," but some part of the message must be, "We need your money and your time. Please. Thank you."

It is finished?

I wish that this post was a taradiddle. Wish I didn't have these feelings or these questions. Wish I was somehow more pious or more thankful. Wish that I could just chalk this all up to sin and a sinful world and receive forgiveness and move on.

However, I'm an employee of the church. I'm a missionary here. And I'm haunted by this question that nags at my mind and refuses to go away...and when I succeed in answering it for a moment, it comes back twice as strong: What if, in inviting people to become part of the church, I'm inviting them to a life of guilt and shame, of forever "not being enough"? 

But then Peter's comment also comes to mind: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).


I'm going to choose to believe Jesus' words are true: It is finished!

I stand forgiven, which is incredibly amazing considering my ingratitude, anger, angst, selfishness, etc. I'm not forgiven because of my pious attitude during the Good Friday service, not forgiven because of my hours of work or because of my "missionary service"--not at all!

Sinful to the core and totally confused, I'm still loved and forgiven. What crazy grace!

But if I believe that, what do I do?


These questions are serious, and they are painful. I've left my family, moved to another country, learned a new language, bumbled around like a child, tried to learn new cultural traditions and a way of life, sacrificed relationships with friends, given up educational dreams, etc. And if this has all been done to share the wonderful love and forgiveness of our Savior, great!! If it has simply allowed more people to be put in even deeper chains of guilt, separated them from their families, and told them that they need to "do more"...out of thankfulness for God's love, of course (a bit of sarcasm there)...well, then I need to stop what I'm doing.

Thoughts? Comments? Please...words of wisdom or advice? I realize that I am just a sinful human being, trying to wrestle with mysteries of the Divine. But I believe that God gives grace for our wrestling moments...

Two Weeks in Tokyo

If you read any of Haidee's blog posts last week, you'll know that I (Eric) have been living in Tokyo for the past couple weeks preparing for a new job that I'll begin at the end of the month.


ECC (the largest English conversation company in Japan) has over 170 schools in Japan, one of which is in Fukushima City, only a 10 minute walk from our apartment.  Haidee's brother, Joel, has been working there for a year and a half, and really loves his job.  When I learned that a full time teaching position would soon be available, I jumped at the opportunity and applied for the job.  ECC requires all of their new employees to attend a two-week job training at the Kanto headquarters in Tokyo.

It's the first time in my life that I've had to wear a suit and tie to work every day!

And so, last Saturday morning, I found myself on a Shinkansen (bullet train) speeding towards Tokyo at about 300 km/h (186 m//h).  I arrived at Shinjuku station in less than 2 hours.  Over 3.5 million people use Shinjuku station (新宿駅) every day, making it the world's busiest transportation hub.  It's also very close to ECC's 10-story headquarters building where I attended training every day (except Sundays).  That being said, I got a little disoriented at the station and ended up being about 20 minutes late to training.  Big Mistake.  In Japan, being one minute late is just as bad as being an hour late.  It's okay, I didn't get fired . . . .but I was reminded of the importance of arriving early (especially when you're not entirely sure how to get there).

Shinjuku Station - west exit - at 3pm on a weekday

Other than that, ECC training has been a blast! There are 15 of us new teachers (split into two training groups) from England, Australia, Canada, and the USA.  It's kind of like being in college all over again: we're in class for about 7 hours a day, visit during lunch and breaks, and occasionally go out together in the evenings.  I really enjoy having a group of peers to hang out with.  It's been a lot of fun getting to know everyone.

ECC headquarters in Shinjuku

The training itself is pretty intense.  ECC has a lot of very specific teaching methods and procedures that they'd like their teachers to follow.  It's fun to watch the trainers demo lessons for us - they're really good teachers!  It can also be a little intimidating - it's a lot of information to digest in a short period of time.  We had training for adult classes last week.  I definitely have more experience with adult classes (most of my teaching this last year at Izumi Lutheran has been adults), and I found the methods and tips that ECC presented to be very helpful!  Most nights Haidee and I would talk on the phone and I'd recap the things that were covered in that day's training.

Our fun training group!

This week we're in kid's training.  We take off our shoes at the door, sit cross-legged on cushions, and act like 3-12 year old Japanese kids.  We have a lot of fun and laugh a lot!  It reminds me a lot of my classroom music education pedagogy classes back in college.  The instructors are pros at teaching kids, and it's really amazing to sit back and observe their teaching methodology.  Excellent teaching is like an artform: it looks so smooth and simple, but just underneath the surface there are many specific methods being implemented.  Our own teaching demonstrations will be at the end of the week.  I'd really like to do well on this one, as the vast majority of my classes that I teach at ECC in Fukushima will be for kids.

Friends

When I'm not in training, I've had a little bit of practice navigating Tokyo's vast train system.  My first Sunday (and day off) I went traveled by train to Sakurashinmachi to visit some friends that I had met last May at a Kid's Camp in Fukushima.  I made it to the correct location (after asking a clerk at Seven Eleven convenience store where the church was located).  It was wonderful to see familiar faces and share stories with each other!

One night later that week I took a 6:30pm train (right in the middle of rush hour) on the Shōnan-Shinjuku Line.  It was packed full, but I somehow managed to squeeze onto the train.  Then, all of a sudden, I was swept along with the mass of people further into the middle of the train car.  During rush hour at some of the busier train stations in Tokyo, there are employees with white gloves whose job is to literally push people onto the trains to fill them to maximum capacity before the doors slide shut.  I'd heard about these people-pushers, but had never experienced it before.  Needless to say there was no need for me to hold on to the plastic rings along the ceiling for support, I wasn't going to move anywhere.  Thankfully, two stops later, a good percentage of people got off the train and I could breathe again.  What an experience!

our friends Efrain and Seiko

The second Sunday I was in Tokyo Haidee came down to visit!!  We met our friend Efrain and his fiancee Seiko at Tokyo Baptist Church, and went out to lunch together afterwards.  Then Haidee and I wandered around Shin-Okubo (the neighborhood where I'm staying) for the afternoon.  It's kind of like a Korea Town - with lots of Korean grocery stores and restaurants.  We enjoyed a somewhat pricey, but incredible meal at a Korean BBQ restaurant called プングム (Pungumu).  The meal came with a variety of Korean side dishes called banchan (like kimchi, pajun, kaenip), spicy soups, and other things we didn't recognize.  The best part was that the server brought the meat to our table and BBQ'd it for us on a little charcoal grill placed on our table (perfect for a chilly evening).  I'd recommend this restaurant to anyone.


So, would I ever want to live in Tokyo?  Probably not.  It's so massive, crowded, and noisy.  With all the trains, lights, buildings, hustle and bustle there's a constant energy in the air that, while it may be a little exciting at first, would really drain me out.  But it's where the people are.  And it's been pretty fun to not be the only strange foreigner living in the neighborhood (in fact, Tokyo is quite diverse).  I think I'll continue to enjoy traveling to Tokyo for an occasional visit. . . and then I'll enjoy coming back to Fukushima!

Wrapping up the school year

It's been a week of wrapping things up here...one more kids class this afternoon, and an adult class tonight, and two classes next week, and the "school year" for 2012-2013 will officially be over! Even after teaching 4ish years in Japan, it still feels a bit unnatural for me to end the school year in March and begin the new school year two weeks later, in April! Without a long vacation or summer break, goodbyes after the end of the year feel a bit anti-climactic...more like, "Well, see you in two weeks!" :)

I'm tired. The trip to Tokyo and seeing Eric was wonderful, but started the week out in a whirlwind of activity that never quite stopped. The students were tired all week too...coming in late with glazed, droopy eyes. There is something about resting and stopping the usual schedule that is good for the soul.

There are decisions to be made, a classroom to be cleaned, new textbooks to order, a new curriculum to plan and prepare, tuition fees and questions to be dealt with, old students asking for new schedules, new students asking to meet for a level check and class placement, advertisements that need to be somehow made and put out...sometimes it feels like I'm a 26-year-old running my own business/school, and I just happen to do it all in two languages. Note: I'm neither a good business person nor good with languages.

Well...the sun is shining for today. It's a beautiful day to walk to work...beautiful day to enjoy the coming spring. There really are only a few classes left, and the other responsibilities or details will come and go. The last school year has held failures and successes...and I'm guessing the new year will as well. :)

Saturday

It's been a Saturday of school work. :)

Lots of peppermint tea has been consumed, and 20 lessons are somewhat planned for the week with notes scrawled next to times. Would anyone else understand what I mean by this?:

"5:10 - ball, song, review TB actions, Goss. bk, lng vowel phonics brd hit, conv. dice draw, FIB verb phrases (timed)..."

...let's just say the lessons are not written quite as nicely as any lesson plans I ever turned in for my education classes during college. But it will work for this last full week of classes before the end-of-the-year break.

Other highlights of the day include finding new children's songs to sing in the classroom and looking up new novels to read with students. The Giver? Moon over Manifest? The Good Master? Anne of Green Gables? To Kill a Mockingbird? The Witch of Blackbird Pond?

Such searching always make me drool a bit...so many good books...such delicious, thought-provoking, heart-wringing and joy-inspiring words... Maybe in heaven I'll teach literature circles for eternity. :)

And finally, a link to a new "classroom" song that the upper-elementary girls will love to learn, and the video is very fun: You Make Me Smile.

Mr. Selle, you are "cooler than the flip side of my pillow," just to let you know. And if that makes no sense, you'll just have to click the link above. :)

Off to an evening class...and tomorrow I'm off to Tokyo for a quick visit! Yay! :)