Hello!!! Shorter post because I wrote two other ones and accidentally saved them as drafts and can't figure out how to access them on mobile!! For a longer write-up check the drafts I guess sorry for continuing to be tech illiterate!!
I finished my first week of teaching Nagano and have now moved to Kawasaki City, Kanagawa and am working at a school in Tokyo.
My first week in Japan was top-notch. I really loved my host family. It wasn't perfect, I didn't hit it off with my host sister amazing or anything, but I was really grateful for all the kindness her family showed me. I really enjoyed talking to her mom especially. We often discussed current events or world issues lien education inequality and the difficulties/value of language learning. My host mother was a really kind and interesting woman and I was really glad she was so welcoming to me. She even took me on a walk around their neighborhood one day and through the garden at the local elementary school which was so cool!! She told me to stay in touch and write them and I hope we do.
Nagano was so beautiful I could hardly believe it. In every direction I could see mountains, which were often covered in fog/clouds. My host mother said it's an ideal location because the mountains keep the temperature cool and protect it from typhoons, it's far enough inland that it's safe from tsunamis, and there's no nuclear power plants so the air is clean and safe from radiation. Of course her review was a little biased but I see where she's coming from. If I ever come back to Japan I would love to go back to Nagano, there's so much beautiful nature there.
And I ate a lot of really good food! Highlights include Eel and Octopus sushi, dorayaki (a pancake with sweet red bean filling), banana milk, aloe yogurt, and lots of little snacks I don't remember the names of, mostly rice-based with brown sugar. The only things I haven't really enjoyed are warm egg pudding and the infamous natto (stringy fermented soy bean) but even those weren't so bad. I even liked the tomatoes I had! Maybe Emma was right....I just was missing out on good tomato? That's harmful to my Brand though, I'll try not to dwell on it.
I also went to a soba making class with my host family! My host mother kept making fun of me and my host siblings for cutting the noodles too thick (soba is supposed to be very thin) but we thought it all tasted fine in the end. It was so good, and so cool to do because I've never made my own pasta or noodles or anything from scratch)
As for teaching: the TL:DR is it's hard but I like it a lot. I'm not very good at it but even on a really hard day I still really liked it. I went home and thought "that was really tough, and I'm excited for tomorrow" which is a pretty rare feeling for me, especially when I feel like I'm not particularly good at something. Even though the teaching is challenging, I feel like I am getting a little better and more confident each day, and I want to keep working at it. Plus I really liked working with the students. I got maybe a little too emotionally attached to some of the students at our last school (I could really recite a list of kids I thought were cool and why) and I felt like i grew to care about them and their success a lot over the course of the week.
I'm especially biased toward my main group, Tastey Tuna ("you may think Tastey is wrong but it's originality"). I could tell you so much about every member they were such a cool group of students and I felt really excited whenever they gave their presentations.
We're at an all-girls school this week and the vibe seems a lot different/more serious, especially considering there are nearly twice the number of students and group leaders. So far I don't know what I think but we'll see what tomorrow brings. Maybe I'll find out I actually like this whole teaching thing. Maybe I'll find out the Nagano kids were really just extremely special and I don't like the whole teaching thing. I'm open to either possibility and many more, and I'm excited to learn more about myself as this month continues.
(Also: I have more pictures from Japan I could show you a but I don't want to post any pictures of students without permission. I only included the one picture with students because it's already been publicly shared elsewhere)
This sounds like you had a good week!!
Looks like you're living your best life boo
tastey post :P I want to make noodles! this all sounds like so much fun! but also a lot of time for growth...you should make a google slides with more of the pics o_o I think it's a good sign when you struggle with something but there's still something about it that makes you look forward to doing it the next day!