i'll be warm soon



Iizuka (Kaita) Mornings
I'm surprising myself by keeping up with regular posts on this blog.  I either have nothing to do or have nothing else better to do, the latter being the more likely case.  I've been getting into a good rhythm of riding my bike everyday so that's great.  Although it's cold (temperatures hover in the low 30s F in the morning), I'm still finding a way to enjoy the rides.  Better yet, 2 and a half years later, I'm soaking in the scenery around me.  Every so often I'll stop and take a random picture and post it on Instagram.  Although Iizuka isn't too rural, the abundance of nature and agricultural land in Japan is abundant despite having many large and in some ways, futuristic metropolitan areas.  This allows for a great contrast in lifestyle and scenery.

Anyway, this is probably my last post of 2016.



Winter Camp at Global Arena
As I did last year, I attended a Winter Camp for another school in Munakata City.  The venue, Global Arena, is a sporting complex that specializes in rugby.  If I'm correct, they even have a professional or semi-professional team there.  The facility is extremely nice and I'm always jealous of it as my school's summer camps venue definitely deserves a 1-star rating.  The students at this school are also great.  Their English ability is high and their attitudes are even better.  It's always a blast to have the honor to share classrooms with an ALT from South Africa living in Tagawa, Tebello, as she entertains everyone with her high-level energy.

The only downside to this camp is having to wake up early and commute there.  By public transportation, it takes over 1 hour 30 minutes. 

15 Minute walk to Urata from my house 
13 Minutes Urata to Nogata
7 Min Transfer
26 Min to Orio 
14 Min Transfer
15 Min to Kyoikudaimae
10 Min Bus to Global Arena

And like last year, it rained.  So that was unfortunate.
What's worse, as I discovered yesterday while riding and exploring new areas of Fukuoka, by bicycle, I can get to Global Arena from my house in just under an hour.

Christmas Tie

A Christmas Tree

One of the pleasures of being an ALT is that I have the opportunity to spread the Christmas cheer to students and perhaps even other teachers at my school.  I usually look forward to Christmas lessons as it allows me the opportunity to sing Christmas Carols with them.  I even enjoy having them make a few Christmas decorations as well.

Japanese Christmas' do differ from the Christmas' I've experienced in Hawaii.  For starters, Christmas is not a holiday.  Many of my students will either come to school or go out to the city.  Although some students receive presents, not all do.  But what's most strange to me is that Christmas presents are placed on their bed next to their pillow.  Even though some families have Christmas trees, they don't put presents under it.  The real winner of Christmas in Japan?  Bakeries and KFC.  I don't know how KFC managed to do it, but over the years they have convinced the Japanese that eating fried chicken on Christmas will be a tradition.
 (More about the KFC craze here,
  http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20161216-why-japan-celebrates-christmas-with-kfc )
I had asked my students what they'll eat on Christmas day and sure enough, most replied with fried chicken and Christmas cake.





Sometimes students are nice.  My co-alt and I have been getting Christmas cards on our desks from students for about 3 days straight.  They've obviously been given an assignment to make these, but some of the students have put in effort and it's really nice to get them.  We also got a present from our two ESS members so that was a pleasant surprise.  Although, I'm awkward at accepting gifts and generally don't like receiving gifts either.  Not sure why.  I think that comes from this idea in Japan that if you're given a gift, you give a gift in return.  Eventually that turns into a never ending omiyage gift war.  I genuinely just like giving gifts and the only fulfillment I need is knowing if they actually like the gift or not.








It's been an annual tradition to have a Chikuho Area ALT Christmas party in early December.  This year, I had a part in helping plan and coordinate the event.  We had a new venue this year and that caused things to be a bit more complicated than in the past.  I'm not a huge fan of parties and I don't drink, so I guess it was alright.  I just hope that everyone else had a good time and I was happy that we met our budget quota and that it's over now.








Of course, my post will end with bikes.  It rains often here.  Wet and cold weather together is a terrible combination.  I've bought some "winter riding" gear, but sometimes it's just not enough.  Obviously the situation could be much worse, but I don't find it particularly fun to ride when it's wet.  But, I've still got to ride.  So the rollers are brought out and I have a "good time" riding those.  I think I need a new or different playlist while on them though.  It'd also be nice to have power so I could use Zwift.  I've even missed riding on a trainer recently too.  No matter what, riding has to be done.

Since I'll be riding a lot more, I decided to re-do my spare room.  When I first came to Japan, I had wanted my spare room to be a bike room.  One thing led to another and it became a music room.  I got tired of that and made my bike room.  I got carried away and having a colored laser printer, I printed out some fake signs.  It's still and will probably always be a work in progress.  Strangely, having a room like this helps motivate me to ride more.  And that's what I hope to do in 2017.  Ride my bike more, a lot more.  That way, I should enjoy my life much more in Japan and finally accomplish some of the things that I've wanted to do since first arriving here.









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