Saturday (31/05/03)
What a messed up day!
Today was the last day of training; we have Sundays off and start on Monday. There was a bit of a chat in the morning to make sure we had everything in our heads and also a few administration tasks that needed doing. The real work was in the afternoon - lesson planning[A]. Our training so far was, apparently, sufficient to start teaching all ages and we had to plan the lessons for that whole week in the afternoon. Two hours later and I had still not quite finished one lesson. And I was no slower than anyone else! This was the point everybody started getting worried and frantically photocopying all the books so that they could plan at home. I knew my photocopying skills (honed by years in non-gainful employment) would come in useful one day. I photocopied two days worth and then thought I would come in during the week to do the rest. This was a popular idea as everybody looked shattered after 4-5 hours. We left at 6 because the company had offered to take us all out, which would have been great except we were all shattered. And it was only 6.
We all got taken to a karaoke place[B]. Karaoke is apparently nothing like what I, and all of the newcomers, thought. Karaoke on a stage in front of everybody is supposedly a western creation (or bastardisation) so we were all a bit surprised when we walked in. Shoes had to be taken off and left in nifty little lockers and then we were shown to our room. The room had a table that was "in" the ground and we sat on the floor. It was pretty comfortable actually and the ambience was nice. Everyone got their drinks in and then we started getting food. Our "bosses" ordered all the food with a couple of requests but I was not too fussed as long as it was pigless. I can't remember exactly what we ate but it was all fairly decent. There was definitely a selection of meat, fried potatoes, salad, sushi and genuinely raw fish (called sashimi). I tried some of that and thought it was merely OK. The shrimp, however, was especially fantastic.
After food came the music. It was not exactly flowing but my boss started it off with an old Rolling Stones number. The choice of songs was vast but, unsurprisingly, most were in Japanese. The English selection was slightly smaller and restricted to really famous songs[C] (or those that have done well in Japan - stand up "Girl Power" by Shampoo). The set up was two microphones and this weird karaoke machine (a TV that you put numbers in) that it was connected to. You could put all kinds of effects on the mics and adjust the levels and stuff. Eventually more people sang but it was a limited choice to be honest. There were a few Beatles tracks, like "Hey Jude" and "Eight Days A Week", and I managed to get a bit of "Girls and Boys" by Blur in too. It was a laugh and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
[tbc]
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. Lesson planning is really hard and requires a lot of effort - so I have great respect for teachers. The biggest issue is that you have to plan for a number of eventualities too, until you have some experience and a better understanding of the students you have in the class. Trying to work out the timings and to keep focused was pretty hard at first but I learnt a lot from the processes over the years.↩
B.This was not really a karaoke place - but actually an izakaya. Karaoke places have a greater focus on the songs although it seems, ostensibly the same. Karaoke "booths" or "boxes" are the normal way in Japan now although there are a few places where you can sing with lots of strangers too.↩
C. The choice of English (and Korean and Chinese in many places) songs at proper karaoke places is vast and greater than I would expect in the UK. I have been a few times in the UK too, and the selection is not as good as even the sunset in Japanese karaoke places. They take it seriously.↩
D. This means 6 trees and has some beautifully simple kanji,六本木 , for the name. Later, Roppongi became better known for the Roppongi Hills complex but at this point, it was known for US armed forces having a good time.↩
What a messed up day!
Today was the last day of training; we have Sundays off and start on Monday. There was a bit of a chat in the morning to make sure we had everything in our heads and also a few administration tasks that needed doing. The real work was in the afternoon - lesson planning[A]. Our training so far was, apparently, sufficient to start teaching all ages and we had to plan the lessons for that whole week in the afternoon. Two hours later and I had still not quite finished one lesson. And I was no slower than anyone else! This was the point everybody started getting worried and frantically photocopying all the books so that they could plan at home. I knew my photocopying skills (honed by years in non-gainful employment) would come in useful one day. I photocopied two days worth and then thought I would come in during the week to do the rest. This was a popular idea as everybody looked shattered after 4-5 hours. We left at 6 because the company had offered to take us all out, which would have been great except we were all shattered. And it was only 6.
We all got taken to a karaoke place[B]. Karaoke is apparently nothing like what I, and all of the newcomers, thought. Karaoke on a stage in front of everybody is supposedly a western creation (or bastardisation) so we were all a bit surprised when we walked in. Shoes had to be taken off and left in nifty little lockers and then we were shown to our room. The room had a table that was "in" the ground and we sat on the floor. It was pretty comfortable actually and the ambience was nice. Everyone got their drinks in and then we started getting food. Our "bosses" ordered all the food with a couple of requests but I was not too fussed as long as it was pigless. I can't remember exactly what we ate but it was all fairly decent. There was definitely a selection of meat, fried potatoes, salad, sushi and genuinely raw fish (called sashimi). I tried some of that and thought it was merely OK. The shrimp, however, was especially fantastic.
After food came the music. It was not exactly flowing but my boss started it off with an old Rolling Stones number. The choice of songs was vast but, unsurprisingly, most were in Japanese. The English selection was slightly smaller and restricted to really famous songs[C] (or those that have done well in Japan - stand up "Girl Power" by Shampoo). The set up was two microphones and this weird karaoke machine (a TV that you put numbers in) that it was connected to. You could put all kinds of effects on the mics and adjust the levels and stuff. Eventually more people sang but it was a limited choice to be honest. There were a few Beatles tracks, like "Hey Jude" and "Eight Days A Week", and I managed to get a bit of "Girls and Boys" by Blur in too. It was a laugh and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
We were chucked out at 9 though it felt so much later. This was where the party got split up, inadvertently. Steve made a call to his friend Mark and I was having a chat with Andy. Whilst we did this, the others walked off without a glance back (they "thought" we were there).
Steve and Andy wanted to go to a place called Roppongi[D] that they had heard of. This was a place with loads of bars and clubs that was a magnet for foreigners. I was not too keen but I knew I would go there eventually so I thought, "why not now?"
Steve and Andy wanted to go to a place called Roppongi[D] that they had heard of. This was a place with loads of bars and clubs that was a magnet for foreigners. I was not too keen but I knew I would go there eventually so I thought, "why not now?"
[tbc]
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. Lesson planning is really hard and requires a lot of effort - so I have great respect for teachers. The biggest issue is that you have to plan for a number of eventualities too, until you have some experience and a better understanding of the students you have in the class. Trying to work out the timings and to keep focused was pretty hard at first but I learnt a lot from the processes over the years.↩
B.This was not really a karaoke place - but actually an izakaya. Karaoke places have a greater focus on the songs although it seems, ostensibly the same. Karaoke "booths" or "boxes" are the normal way in Japan now although there are a few places where you can sing with lots of strangers too.↩
C. The choice of English (and Korean and Chinese in many places) songs at proper karaoke places is vast and greater than I would expect in the UK. I have been a few times in the UK too, and the selection is not as good as even the sunset in Japanese karaoke places. They take it seriously.↩
D. This means 6 trees and has some beautifully simple kanji,六本木 , for the name. Later, Roppongi became better known for the Roppongi Hills complex but at this point, it was known for US armed forces having a good time.↩
No comments:
Post a Comment