Here is a letter I wrote to my grandparents that explains a few things. Written this past Friday.

Hello Grandma and Grandpa from Japan!

Thanks for the message- I got it on my phone this morning. Today is my last day of summer "vacation." I've been coming into work 5 days a week, but it's been pretty lax since the students aren't here. In Japan teachers have to be at school 5 or 6 days a week all year round. I didn't know this at first, but when school starts tomorrow (a Saturday!) and the students and teachers will have school every other Saturday for the entire term. However, since I am an ALT I don't have to come in on Saturdays, just tomorrow. I will be giving a short speech in Japanese that I wrote and had one of the English teachers help me translate. I will be speaking in front of all the teachers and then in front of all the students, about 40 teachers and 450 students in all.

Next week I will be doing a self-introduction lesson 11 times- for most of the classes here at Ihara High School. Then after that I'll be planning about 5 or 6 lessons a week. I'm pretty much in charge- the Japanese Teacher of English may or may not be in the classroom while I'm teaching!

My new refrigerator was delivered yesterday. My old one worked, it was just tiny. So I went grocery shopping last night and biked my groceries home. It is not like shopping in the US. This past year I cooked about 60 meals for me and my roommates so I got fairly good at grocery shopping/knowing what to buy/finding things for low prices. But here they don't even have many of the staples that I would buy for meals back home. Ground chuck is hard to come by, no canned fruit, no baked beans, no pizza! There is a much smaller section of pasta as well. And the cereal shelf is only about 6 feet wide and 4 feet tall. Back home there was a whole aisle dedicated to cereal.

I've been pretty busy- been spending most of my free time getting things organized and hanging out with other ALTs from other cities. We have been out to eat at all kinds of restaurants. Two nights ago I was at an Indian restaurant run by an Indian man who spoke Japanese. I had mutton curry. Yaki soba is one of my favorite foods that I've had so far. It is basically noodles that are boiled then fried with little bits of vegetables and a soy/barbeque type sauce. I've made the instant version at my apartment several times. My house is pretty much clean. I spent 6 hours cleaning the kitchen and about 4 hours cleaning the bathroom. Even the walls needed to be scrubbed.

Been riding my bicycle a lot. Today it was raining so I bundled up in the full rain gear my predecessor left me, was glad for that. I think it is illegal to bike and hold an umbrella at the same time. I have aircondition now in the apartment, but it also isn't 90 degrees everyday so sleeping has been better.

I hope grandpa's vision is better- maybe he'll enjoy golfing more if he can see the ball himself. Hunting will be more enjoyable too I would imagine.

What have you been doing lately for fun? Been on any more elder hostels? I got a postcard from Sonja I think... it wasn't signed at the bottom so I'm only guessing...

Love,
Luther


And a letter I wrote today in response to an e-mail from another ALT friend:
Dear Ruth,

The kids might like me, but they sure were rowdy. I think my first lesson went terribly. I started out right away screwing up the order of my lesson plan, so it didn't really work out. How do you keep kids who are divided up into groups on task? How the hell do you teach kids who can't speak English?

Ok, I will do some soul searching to find the answer.

I think my self-introduction plan was difficult because I spend too much time talking about myself. It just goes way over the kids' heads. So I think I'll shorten it quite a bit and add in a different activity. And rearrange so they're doing an activity in groups right away. I sort of started off nervous and then punted and the kids scored a touchdown on me their opening drive.

How have your first lessons gone?

Your Friend,
Luther

That was just a taste of my first day- I’m doing some writing tonight so stay posted.