Friday, August 29, 2008
Fukuoka
I know I said in my last post that I would fill you in on all my Fukuoka adventures, however, I waited too long to post and have forgotten a bunch of what I did, so I will let the pictures I took speak for me.

After checking out the school and getting settled into my apartment, it was time to hit the town with my fellow Yamanashi JETs Jamie and JD along with some others from the school. There is a really nice mall-like shopping area that has a movie theater, game center, and a bunch of stores and restaurants near the school. The shopping center was really pretty at nice, so we just walked around to enjoy the view and then decided on okonomiyaki for dinner. I believe it was my first time ever trying okonomiyaki. It's bascially like a pancake, but made with more savory materials. Good stuff.




On my daily walk to school I pass a few interesting sites. One is these giant streamer things. Not sure what they are for, but there is a whole walkway of them and they look really cool. there is also an awesome field of some type of flowers across from the school too.



The school offered a quick little trip to interesting places around the school, the main attraction being a small, local, temple. Many of the students in the group had never seen a temple and were quite impressed. After having seen so many, I'm starting to develop the opinion that they all look the same. This particular temple did have 2 things going for it though. One was this really cool zodiac wheel on one of the gates ceilings. You probably wouldn't notice it unless someone pointed it out, but it was definitaly one of the coolest things I've even seen in a shrine. There was all this large float display with tiny dolls that I'd never seen before.






I did a lot of exploring of the city and also did a bunch of shopping. I bough some poster for my room back home and had a ton of different foods. One of my favorite places to eat was this custom ramen place callied ichiran. I loved that place! You basically go, sit in you little box, fill out a sheet with how you want your ramen, and then it magically appears a few minutes latter. I really like the extra garlic and spicy options.





School also did a karaoke night, which I attended. Not so much fun karaokeing with a huge group of people you don't know though. I don't even think I sang a single song the entire evening and it was like double the price of any other karaoke session I've been too. However, it was fun to meet new people and do a bit of hanging out. After karaoke a bunch of people decided to go clubing, but I called it a night.


Looking through my pictures makes me feel like I didn't do that much while in Fukuoka, but then I realize that I was busy with class many of the days and wasn't in Fukuoka all that long. Plus, a lot of the thme I was there, it was pouring down rain anyway!


Some more random pics of that field by the school and the fish tanks at the train station.



I decided to walk along the field of flowers one day to see what I could find, and low and behold there was a really big park at the end. It's a pity that I found it towards the end of my trip or I would have done my homework there instead of going to my apartment to do it. I walked around the park until it started getting dark just enjoying the scene.





Even though I think that all temples look the same, I could not resist one last visit to a temple that I heard about that was nearish my apartment. Its a temple that is famous for studying. Many students go to the temple to pray for sucess in their studies and as I was a student at the time, I figured it couldn't hurt to check it out seeing how is was only about 15min. away.





One of the last things I did before leaving Fukuoka was to visit the Fukuoka Tower. I took a bus from the station and on the way past the Yahoo!Dome. The view from the tower was really nice and I had a coupon, so getting to the top wasn't all that expensive. However, while I was up at the top, it started to rain. So, I also decided to grab dinner and a drink while waiting for the rain to stop. It never really stopped, but did move from the pouring categorupy into the light drizzle categroy, so it wasn't too bad.



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Thursday, August 28, 2008
Genki Jacs
I knew after several months of studying Japanese on my own that I wanted to try and attend some type of intensive Japanese language course over the summer. While I am studying on my own, I feel that I would be learning more if I were in a classroom setting. Summer break is almost a month and a half long, so I knew I would have some time. I did a bunch of research online to help find the right school for me. Most of the schools I was looking at were in Tokyo but they were quite expensive and either required that you find your own accommodation for the duration of your study period or were for a minimum of 4 weeks. I was looking for something in the 2-3 week range to give myself enough time to go back to Colorado for a visit and for something that took care of all the extras, like accommodation.

During my research period, JD, a fellow JET, posted about Genki Jacs. He attended the school last summer and wanted to go again this summer and was wondering if anyone else was interested because groups can get discounts. I read up on the school and everything looked good. Plus, I figured it would be nice to attend a school where I knew at least one other person. Before I knew it, 2 other people also decided they wanted to attend. In the end, Yamanashi had its own crew of JD, myself, Jamie, and Jack attending Genki Jacs.

The school had everything I was looking for. They took care of providing texts and accommodation. They are also located in Fukuoka, which is on Kyushyu, a part of Japan I had yet to visit. Thus, travel opportunities were abound. All I had to do was show up.

I signed up for their Beginner Conversational Japanese course and also signed up for the optional exam skills class. I took the exam class option to help me prep for taking the JLPT4 exam in December. The total for my 2 week learning adventure came to 106,100 yen. Not too bad for a 2 week vacation. I also had to snag an overnight bus ticket from Tokyo to Fukuoka which ran me about 12,000 additional yen. I only booked a one way bus ticket to Fukuoka for myself and Jamie and figured we could work out getting back to Kofu at a later date.

After a rather harrowing bus trip to Fukuoka in which Jamie ended up getting left behind at a rest stop, leaving me to convince the driver to go back a pick her up (which he did thankfully) we arrived in Fukuoka. Getting to our apartment was easy as we simply shared a cab. The dorm was nice and the people running it were great. When we arrived they helped us with our bags and gave us a quick tour of the facility. Genki Jacs had several different dorms to choose from, including a few girls only dorms. We went with the closest co-ed dorm, which is called Cool Reve. The 12,100 yen cost per week was included in the cost of the school package, so we didn't have to worry about paying. From the dorm to the school we took a train that took about 15 min and 240 yen to get to the school. The train station was a short walk from the dorm and ran more than often enough. Here are some pictures of the apartment.


The school is located in a very central and convenient location. It is about a 7 minute walk from Tenjin station and there are plenty of restaurants, shopping, and combinis nearby. There is also a really nice park and temple within walking distance of the school. Here are some pictures of the school.





When I first arrived, they did a sort of orientation to go over the school rules. Then they had us all take a placement test. After I bombed that, all the girls were given loud noise making rape alarms. My kids all have these on their backpacks and its basically a little box with a pin and if you pull out the pin, it makes a really loud, annoying noise until the pin is replaced. I'm still not quite sure why the school felt the need to pass them out. Mine was hello kitty themed.

Once they figured out our class levels, we received out class schedule and textbooks. The school uses the Genki textbook series. I saved some money by bringing my own. The schedule is pretty simple. 4 hours of class a with different classes focusing on grammar, conversation, and listening skills. I also had my exam skill class on Tuesday afternoons. I was placed in the second to lowest class level.

Overall, the school was quite nice. They offer a decent range of services, including cultural activities and trips to local attractions. A nice thing to offer people who have never been to Japan and might be to self conscious to explore on their own. Most of these tours cost extra, but a few are free. I went on the free Fukuoka area tour they offer to new students to help me get familiar with the area. In class was a bit lacking however. While I know I probably learned more than if I had studies on my own, I felt the pace of the class was too slow. On the website, it clearly states that students should know hiragana before attending school. However, in everyone of my classes there were at least 3 students who could not read hiragana and thus the class moved really slow. Also, the max number of students in each class is capped at 6. All of my classes had the max number of students. And, while 6 isn't too bad, I felt I didn't get as much speaking time as I would have liked. Also, while homework was assigned, it was too simple and never seemed to be checked, which was really frustrating to me. The one class I really felt like I was learning was the exam skills class, as it was one on one teaching. Here is my pro/con list for the school.

Pros:
Studying everyday = good, and not something I would do on my own
They take care of housing
Excellent location
Offer planned activities
International students, often fun to hang out with

Cons:
Teacher contact was relatively low (I suspect this improves if you stay longer)
Homework too easy/not checked/not enough
Rains too much

Overall, worth it. I had a great time in Fukuoka and the school was really helpful with all of my questions. The dorm was fine and there was plenty of things to do. I didn't do as much learning as I hoped, but it was still better than studying alone.

My Fukuoka adventures are for another post.

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