Episode 2: Bentron's Training!!!

Well well, hello there again. It seems like it has been way too long since my last post about my arrival in Japan, and perhaps that's just the case. The reason you ask? Definitely, definitively, and directly put: Training. Simple as that... I've been running around like crazy trying to get everything done, trying to do new things, and trying too darn hard to keep swimming! But I'm sure you'll get that feeling by the end of this post. First thing I want to talk about is some pictures. Alright, check it out:


So my training began on Monday, January 29th, and it was at the Nova office in Tsu-city. (This is about a 5 minute train ride from where I live.) It was a three day long set of training exercises with our trainer Mustafa. (He's pretty cool btw.) Ashanthi and myself were the only people getting trained at the time, and though we did really well, I know like both of us felt underprepared for the next week of actual teaching. By the last day of our three, we had taught 6 lessons, and had learned the "Nova Method!" (Or at least, mimicked it really well, haha.) At this point, we still had Chibiko and young student classes to learn, but that would be Monday and Tuesday of the next week, all the way up in Nagoya.





With the Thursday of that training week off, we had the chance to go around town and check out some sights. Let me tell you, there are things here that you won't see anywhere else. First of all, there are people who dry out their fish on their home balcony. There are more Engrish signs than you could imagine, and if you look hard enough, then you can see some pretty beautiful pieces of scenery. I even managed to find a pic of a couple other Gaijin who were posing near the Samurai monument that I posed at recently (see my previous post for a photo.) It isn't the greatest picture on the left, but the woman was posing with her arm out just like I did. Hahaha, I nearly fell over laughing.




With that day off, Ashanthi, Simone, Sherice and I decided to make the most of the day, and make a trip up to Ise (pron. Ee-Say.) Due to the severe jealousy that I have been suffering with due to the opening of a fantastic Indian curry restaurant next to my parents house in Guelph, I found an all you can eat Indian curry restaurant with the girls and we gorged ourselves for 800 yen including tax, drinks, Naan bread (regular and cheese), and salad. Good price (approx. $8 Canadian), but the curry was sub-par in quality.

Ise shrine was a very nice walk. Though it was a little windy, the shrine offered us protection from the wind, and there was definitely an evident tranquility in its setting. I took a lot of pictures, most of which are not posted (or else this page would take FOREVER to load...) But I wanted to include a picture of Ashanthi next to the wash station. For those of you who don't know, when you enter a shrine (or most temples) you are supposed to wash your hands in the holy water that comes from a special spring. Some people drink from it, but usually not... (Ashanthi is just doing so to be funny.) Though I was excited to be there and more than willing to walk around for hours, soaking in the moment, Simone and Sherice had places to go, so we cut our stay short. Ashanthi and I will probably return in the near future.



After a couple more days of work under my belt, Ashanthi and I made our way back to Nagoya for training over Monday and Tuesday. These days were pretty awesome, seeing how I was reunited with some of my Canadian friends from the flight over, namely, Melissa, Sophy, Cassie, Claire and Yvette. I don't seem to have a picture of all of us together, but I can tell you that it's a good day for Nova who are populated by mainly male teachers to have 6 out of seven new teachers being female. (Apparently female teachers are in higher demand in Nova at the moment.) I didn't feel out of place at all, since I'm used to being outnumbered many to one from my days at the University of Guelph. (70% female campus, and most of the guys are in Sciences... ) Anywho, point is good and fun classes were the hand of the day, and I held all aces. Acting like a five-year-old all day is something that I can do very well, and I think I took a lot away from that class. I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to teach the young'ins. Chibiko (classes for 2-3yr olds) is pretty cool. Essentially, you play a CD that lasts 40minutes, and you sing and dance with them the whole time. Their parents are of course involved, and apparently it is super great, but super tiring. Anywho, here are some pics of me around Nagoya in some anime-shops, etc.









Oh, and these guys were fantastic. They dance in Nagoya for fun, all done up like 50s greasers, and their hair is huge. Tight pleather pants, jackets, and 50s rock. I just couldn't stop taking pics.












Finally, to end my post, I'd like to show you an Engrish picture or two and some funny things I've seen... I'd like to keep a running tab on all the funny signs I see, but I doubt I will have enough space on my harddrive to store them all... at least I now have an idea for later on in life. I will hire myself out as an English translator for companies that don't want to put ridiculous phrases on their products. (For clarification, that is a shirmp burger from McDonalds, those are red-bean paste shaped frog cookies, the sign was posted in a train station, and the Spicy tatoo parlour is the first English pun that I've seen here thusfar.)

Ja matta neh, (see ya)

-benjamin