GEOS Isesaki is SOL

GEOS seems to have made its own New Year's resolutions, which appears mainly to be that they will save as much money as possible. They're accomplishing this by closing down quite a few of their schools, and - in a turn of events that is not surprising to me in any way - Isesaki is one of the unlucky ones.

Technically, my school isn't fully closing - it's being merged with the local GEOS Codomo (kids') school, and head office wants us to encourage our students to move over to is. The Codomo school isn't very far away, and since their only other choices are Takasaki (1 hour away by car) or Ota (two hours away by car), head office is hoping that the majority of the students will simply opt for the new location.

Sounds good on paper, right? Merge two schools at the better location, making it more successful, and keep everyone happy in the process. Right, except that ideas that look good on paper rarely work properly in the real world. There are two major flaws in the logic.

1. The Codomo school is TINY. Yes, it's located in the Ito Yokado mall, but it's TINY. It occupies a little corner and is basically constructed of partition boards. There's a very small lobby, a miniscule office, and two average classrooms. The school already has about 70 kid students, and given that I have 40 students, nobody's convinced that schedules can be made to fit the classroom limitations. They could probably add some of the kids to my classes, but my classes are more expensive and aren't set up quite the same.

2. In the official letter to the students, it's stated that I will quite possibly not be the teacher at the "new" school. I can't read the letter because it's in Japanese, but Benni-sensei says it pretty much guarantees that they'll have a new native teacher. This is only partly true. If enough of my students agree to move their classes to the new location, then I'll be kept on as the native teacher. If too many of them decide to quit or go to different schools, then I too will be sent to a different school. Which means I'm facing the possibility of moving.

On principle, I don't mind moving. It's a hassle and will cause me problems, but the actual idea of moving isn't aggravating to me. The problem is that I don't want to move. I'm quite happy where I am - I like Isesaki, I like my students, I like my co-workers, and I don't want to have to get adjusted to a new place and a new school. The matter would be completely different if I was ready to move on, but I'm not. I'm very comfortable here, and I'm not ready to move on yet. In other worse, I like moving but not being told I have to move. Of course, I don't like being told what to do in general, so I'm unhappy anyway.

Right now, I don't know for certain what will happen to me. I'm hoping that the majority of my students decide to move to the Ito Yokado school, thereby allowing me to continue teaching them, which would make everybody happy (as Hitomi-san reports it, everyone's more worried about changing teachers than changing location, which I take as a compliment). But we can't tell them that I might be able to stay in Isesaki, which might encourage them to just cancel classes altogether.

I should know for certain what's happening to me by the middle of February, once we know what our students want to do. Our last day of classes will be March 31st, so at least I've got two more months to enjoy myself here. Although I don't like the idea of leaving Isesaki and getting settled in someplace new, I'm not completely against it. It's not like I have any choice in the matter. And Benni-sensei thinks I'd be placed somewhere else in Gunma or one of the neighboring prefectures, so maybe I won't be completely from everyone. After all, these are the people who are my first Japanese friends, and I really like some of them.

So, I'm still waiting to see what happens. For now, I'm just going to enjoy my time in Isesaki while I can. It's just another bend in the road that I'm approaching, and I won't know what happens until I get there.

further evidence of winter in Gunma-ken

Yes, it was snowy in Takayama. But you know what Takayama doesn't have? Incredible, frigid Siberian wind. If I had to choose between heavy snow and this ridiculous dry wind, I think I'd choose the snow. There have been a couple of days when the wind was steady at 10mph, with much more powerful gusts that make it incredibly difficult to ride a bike without suddenly veering into stone walls or curbs. A couple of days, I've chosen to walk instead of ride simply because I knew it'd be a struggle to actually get anywhere.

Further, it's a very dry wind. Winters in Gunma are typically very dry - there's currently an advisory out warning about the dangers of dehydration. We haven't seen any precipitation in about two weeks, but it feels like longer. Everything's all brown and dry. Benni-sensei's hands are all cracked from the lack of moisture in the air (and there are more commercials for healing ointments and lotions than I can count). It certainly explains why my hair has been considerably less frizzy lately. I'm surprised my hands aren't cracked and peeling too, as they usually are that way during winter. It's been warmer the past couple days, though, with temperatures in the higher single digits. It'd be quite pleasant out if not for this ridonkulous wind.

Here are some pictures I took on the 24th, just to give you an idea of the view I sometimes I have of the mountains north of Isesaki. I had to climb onto a skywalk to get them, but it's nice to know that there's a view to see. This is Mount Akagi, which is the largest mountain in Gunma. It doesn't come to one tall peak, but as you can see, is spread out a bit. One of my students told me that Akagi-san is famous for its silhouette: because it has many small peaks, it resembles a woman lying on her side. You can't really see that from the angle of these pictures, but in other places in Isesaki, that's exactly what it looks like. The best such view is near the Isesaki bus station, which I pass on the way to the train station. Next time I'm walking that way, I'll try to remember to take a picture of it.

sara-sensei and the futile battle to keep warm

As far as I'm concerned, it is officially winter. Doesn't matter that we still have about three weeks to go before the solstice, doesn't matter that it's going to get even colder as winter draws nearer. For me, winter is here: snow is on the mountains. Not a lot of it, but enough to be visible from Isesaki.




Last week, some wet weather came down from the mountains - I'm getting pretty decent at weather prediction, but I think it's common sense to see clouds enveloping the mountains and looming over the valley and figure that rain is coming. Except, up in the mountains, it's not rain, it's snow, as you can see in the pictures.

You have to remember where I'm from (ahem, Florida). Snow is a big deal for me. Waking up to 14 degrees in my room (that's 57 degrees in Fahrenheit) is a big deal for me. Riding my bike to work in a freezing Siberian wind is a bid deal for me. Staying warm has become a pretty important part of my life lately.

One of Benni-sensei's students, Kazuhiro (I think I've mentioned him before), suggested to us one day that we go to UniQlo and check out something called HeatTech. It's a very thin material, and it's made as both shirts and shorts, meant to be worn under regular clothes. It's designed to keep heat in the body, thus keeping body temperature up. It's very warm and very comfortable, and the XL size fits me nicely.

Can we say awesome? The fact that I can fit into Japanese clothing thrills me to no end, even if it is the largest size in the store. What's really great is that it really does an excellent job of keeping me warm. The heater in my room at school doesn't quite get the job done, and even wearing a long-sleeved shirt and suit jacket didn't help much in keeping warm. The HeatTech shirts have really helped with that. At home, I usually wear one under a t-shirt. My apartment heater works fine, but because I'm heating such a small space, it can get stuffy really fast, so I usually only turn it on in the mornings.

This means that, while riding around on my bike, I usually wear 4 layers: HeatTech shirt, blouse, suit jacket, and overcoat. And gloves. And leggings and tennis shoes. That's how cold it is. During the day, when the sun is shining, I usually leave the overcoat at work, but sunset is around 4:30pm, and it gets cold really quick after that. I am now enamored with vending machines that sell hot drinks, because they are HOT. I'm especially fond of hot green tea, and every once in a while, I'll treat myself to one of the sweet cream lattes from the school machine.

But, it's going to be a struggle for me to not freeze to death this winter, because it's not even winter yet. And everyone tells me that the wind will get worse and the weather will get colder. And then they cheerfully tell me that it's usually dry, so there's not much snow. This doesn't really make me feel better, because there's that whole "cold Siberian wind" thing that bothers me. I'm starting to believe that the overcoat is the second-most important thing I brought with me to Japan (the first being the laptop, of course, I'd be going stir-crazy without it).

But, yeah. FREEZING.

and it only took six weeks!

I finally have internet at home! Yay!

It turns out that my tuner was fried and needed to be replaced. So, now the problem is solved and I can once again get online. Time to fire up Skype!

Today was a very good day. I only have three classes on Thursday (but only two students; one of them stays for two classes), and they're both private students and very fun, so I typically have good Thursdays. I decided to go to the 100 yen store to get some things for tomorrow's class, and I ended up riding around and taking pictures of random things. Overnight, trees started to change colors - I swear, last week everything was still green. Riding around with Benni-sensei yesterday, I noticed that there were many more colors bursting into the sky. It helped that yesterday and today were both very clear, very beautiful (and very cold) days. Even though it was pretty windy, I had a very nice ride around my little corner of Isesaki.

I thought it was a beautiful house, so I took a picture of it. It's shiny. And very peaceful-looking.

Pretty yellow trees! The whole street was lined with the trees, which Benni-sensei says are possibly maples. I have no idea, so that works for me.

Those trees are in a park very close to my school.

On the way to school. Last week, a crew came along and trimmed all the trees on one side of the street; the other side was left alone. I have no idea why and no one can explain it to me.

The Spaghetti House. I thought it made a nice picture.

My neighbor's yard. He's an elderly man, and he seems to spend a lot of time working on it. I see him every once in a while when I leave for work.

sara-sensei's apartment

Finally! No video, but I do have pictures of the apartment for you to enjoy.


This is what you see when you step through the front door. I'm standing in the entryway, where shoes are put. I have a little closet there where I keep my sneakers and sandals, as well as the trash bags and the Jayne Cobb: Hero of Canton bag that I use to haul my groceries in. Take a left turn right before the fridge, and you get to the bathroom area of the apartment.

But first, a shot of the actual entryway. The rolling thing is my kitchen storage unit, where I have my dried goods, the dishes, and various tupperware containers (William left quite a few of them, but NONE of them have lids, and they're all super tiny). The top is concave, so it doesn't work well as a cooking space, but it's handy to put my drying dishes on.

And here is the washing area. Directly ahead is the washer, which holds about a week's worth of clothes in one load. To the left is the toilet, to the right is the shower.

This is the toilet. It has its own little room. It's not a super-futuristic toilet like the one in the motel, but it has a faucet on top where clean water comes out when you flush. It's kind of cool.

Here is the shower. Note that the whole room is the shower, even though there appears to be a tub there. There are two drains, one in the shower and one in front of the sink. Theoretically, you're supposed to draw a hot bath, wash yourself outside of the tub with the shower hose, then get in the tub and soak. It's quite relaxing, but it's also a bit complicated, especially if you're not so graceful like me. It's a tiny space, and it's kind of maddening. I also hang a lot of shirts in here to dry, since I don't have much room on the line out the window.

Here is a closer shot of the kitchen. Seriously, that's the kitchen. Fridge, microwave, rice cooker, stove, and sink. Notice the lack of counter space? And the lack of an oven, but that was a given anyway.

I do have some shelves just above the microwave, which is where I keep my spices and utensils and whatnot. There is not enough room to keep food up there. That all goes in the fridge or in the rolling storage unit. Which, by the way, either blocks the front door or the path to the bathroom. There is no room for it to just be, as you can see:

I have plenty of pots and pans, more than I'll ever actually need. I make pasta every once in a while, and I have a skillet that I use more than anything else. I don't often cook in the evening. On Tues-Thurs, I have enough time to come home and make myself some lunch (or bring home lunch), around 2-3pm. So, that is when I cook. For dinner, I just get something mircowaveable, and I don't consider that cooking.

Here is the stove and the sink. Small, huh? The stove works wonderfully, I have no complaints with it (except it randomly decided to turn off in the middle of boiling pasta one day). The cans there are waiting to be rinsed out so I can recycle them. All cans and bottles are recycled.

And here is the living room, entering from the kitchen. I have a door separating the kitchen from the living area, which I like, because I feel a little more closed-in and protected. That's my closet, which is big enough to accomodate all of my clothing. It's got a few shelves in there under the hanging clothes, so I was able to fit all of my socks and things in there too. The AC/heat unit is above it next to the window. I have a crummy view of still more apartments. I have also a really ugly blue futon couch which is usually covered with clothes or someting, but that's okay, because it's not really comfortable. I have to climb on it to open the window and hang my laundry to dry. I'd really prefer to get rid of it, it's just taking up space, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to. Or what to do with it if I were to throw it out. I spend most of my time at the little table, where I do my ironing, my computing, and my eating.

Across from the table is the desk with the tv. You can see how often I use the tv. I didn't like it glaring at me (I hate tvs that aren't turned on, they're creepy), so I covered it with a sheet. Above it are some shelves that I've got my GEOS paperwork crammed into. You can also see some of my bed, but here's a better picture:

Yes, my bed is elevated! I have steps to get into bed. What's really cool is that the steps open up and give me more storage. And there's all kinds of storage underneath my bed, so that's nice. My bed is very hard, though. I think I need another futon on it. I'm not sure if I made it correctly either, but I'm pretty sure that I should be sleeping under one of those things that I'm sleeping on. I needed more cushion. Two blankets came with it: the pink one (I did NOT pick that out) and a soft, warm, fuzzy one. The sheet over the tv was also provided, but I didn't like it. They're all too short for me; if I stretch out, my feet stick out. They're also not very wide, but that's okay because there's not a lot of room for me to move anyway. Maybe it's not overly comfortable, but I sleep just fine in it.

So . . . that's it! Not very exciting, perhaps, but it gets the job done. I don't spend a whole lot of time here, maybe six hours out of the day (not including sleeping hours). Mostly, I'm over at GEOS or out wondering around. But it's nice to come home to, and I keep it fairly tidy. What can I say? It's home.

a lil' bit of the neighborhood and GEOS

And now, for your viewing/reading pleasure, I present to you pictures of my neighborhood and my school.


This is my apartment building: Leo-Palace Rainbow Chateau. Apparently, Leo-Palace gets its kicks by naming its apartment buildings weird, flowery names taken from English or (as in the case of my home) French. Who knows why, because there's clearly nothing rainbow-y or chateau-y about this building. My apartment is not in view here because it's all the way at the end on the second floor. The tree by the gray boxes (which is where the trash goes) is blocking my apartment.

The street on which I live. The striped building at the end on the left is Rainbow Chateau. Across from it is a vegetable field in which is growing a big, leafy crop of something I don't know what.

This is facing away from my apartment building, the direction that I walk to go to work. At the end of the street, I turn left and go a little ways before hitting a major crossroads. It's a pretty quiet neighborhood. The buildings you see here are all residences (except for the spired building on the left, that's a restaurant called Spaghetti House). And look - mountains! It was a little cloudy the day I took these pics, but they were still visible. On clear days, you can see green and brown patches, and on really cloudy days, you can't see anything at all.

The road to GEOS! It's a short walk from my apartment to the school, about 10 minutes (less if I don't have to wait at the light at the crossroads, but I almost ALWAYS have to wait on the light). The only time I don't enjoy it is when it's really cold and windy at night, because it's a pretty fierce wind. Apparently, Gunma-kun is gets very windy in the winter, and it's a Siberian-based wind, so you can imagine how cold that can get. The past couple of days, I've had to take my overcoat to work to wear at night, and that makes it much more manageable. I shudder to think what it'll be like in January, though.

This is the outside of the GEOS office. Not all that impressive, is it? It's a pretty small school, with only two teachers and a manager, and our numbers are consistently too low to keep head office pleased, but Isesaki is a pretty small town by Japanese standards. The school itself has the lobby area, two classrooms, a larger activity room, a small office, a canteen area, and a small bathroom with separate washroom. It's cozy and suits our needs pretty nicely.

This is my room. It's kind of small and not much to look at, but it's my room and I like it. Today, I'm spending my day off straightening it up and getting it better organized. William did things a little differently than I want to do them, and there's not a lot of organization going on, especially in regards to the Kids' classes. I play 2-3 games with them each class, and some of them require a lot of props. I'm trying to make it so that everything is within easy reach and I don't have to go off on a search for something and in the process lose control of the class.

So, that's a bit of my "neighborhood." It's what I see every day. The 7-11 and the grocery store are about a 5 minute walk from GEOS, so everything I need on a daily basis is pretty close. There's a ￥100 yen store about 30 minutes from my apartment, and I don't mind walking there. I'm hoping to try out some of the restaurants that are nearby - there's quite a selection of them, and it's going to be only a matter of time before I get tired of convenie store fare.

rewind: my motel room

So, you want to see pix of my apartment? Well, too bad! (Seriously, I'm working on getting videos, but it's taking longer than I anticipated, for reasons I don't want to get into right now). Instead, you get to witness the marvelousness of my motel room, in which I dwelled for six nights. Actually, I slept remarkably well in this tiny little room, and I spent hours in it without going insane. I'm not sure what that suggests about my psyche.


I am standing next to the bathroom door and directly in front of the room door. That's how small the room was. Enough room for bed, desk, chair, and TV. Japanese TV is hilarious, by the way (except for the news, which is boring in any language). There are more shows of people sitting in panels and making guesses about things than I could count. I watched anime, cooking shows, travel shows, generally anything that caught my eye and was more than just people sitting around and talking.


The bed, which was just big enough for me, though the blanket was a little short. Very low, but very comfortable, more so than my apartment bed because the motel bed has a thicker mattress and sits on something soft. The pillow was a little weird, and I'm glad Genna told me about them beforehand. It wasn't filled with anything soft; instead it was filled with pellets (I think she said they were wheat germ? One of my students said that "macaroni" is also used sometimes). Seriously, you could single out the pellets and roll them between your fingers. Everytime I moved, it made weird crunchy noises. And yet, it was surprisingly comfortable. Although the pellets themselves were a little hard, they made a nice cushion. My real complaint was that it was too damn small.

The toilet, which was quite majestic in its own way. The bathtub/shower is to the left, and it was very small. The important thing here is the toilet, which has buttons. None of which I pressed, because I know how a bidet works, and I preferred not to get sopping wet. But the toilet does all kinds of wondrous things, and its pressure is magnificent. I LOVE Japanese toilets. I have yet to break any. Americans could learn a lot by studying Japanese toilet technology. My apartment toilet isn't as fancy or space-agey, but I like it just the same. It has something the motel toilet doesn't: a faucet on the top where clean water comes out so you can rinse your hands off. That is totally nifty.

And here's a view of the motel itself. First Inn is strictly a business motel, which explains why it's a little spartan in its functionality. It has both Japanese and Western style rooms, and the staff - speaking no English at all - was very helpful and considerate. I basically live right across the street from it and see it every day.

And, as you can see in the background, MOUNTAINS! I can't walk anywhere in this town without seeing mountains, the novelty of which still hasn't worn off for me.

Okay, so that was the motel. I hope to get an apartment post up by the end of the weekend, but I make no promises!