Week 5: “Finding a new goal”

Last week was my gloomy week in Japan, so I tried to rebound from sadness and find  new goals to motivate myself. Despite the fact that I had to say many goodbyes this week, I was more happy and felt relieved by the sense of accomplishment back in my head. I was able to step back a little and look back all the things that I had done this week at the Junior High and at AGU with professor Strong.

On Monday, I had to host an event for the Chat Room in Aoyama Gakuin University. We organized “Social Day” (we prepared and planned for this event last week). We only had 40 minutes for the event, so it must be something short, but interesting. According to my personal experience, I enjoyed going to an event that had free snacks and games. Moreover, doing some sort of cultural events was difficult and I thought that there are other ways to share different cultures: through snacks, games, and talking!

 

We bought Japanese, Korean, Chinese snacks and cold drinks for a hot weather. Everyone liked the snacks and then we also played Ninja. All the students had never played this game before, and it seemed like they really enjoyed playing this game!

 

Our Social Day was a success!

On Tuesday, I had chat sessions with Shibuya residents and college students in the morning. I was assigned for basic level. For chat leaders, basic level is the harder session than advanced level. Chat leaders must pay more attention and help more when people try to say something and explain things. However, advanced session is much easier to keep the conversation going and have a nice talk with them. Anyways, despite our limited vocabularies, we certainly had a great conversation about fashion. Other sessions also went smoothly.

After lunch break, I went to help professor Strong. I came to his International Communication class for the second time, and I talked about my experience in Japan. They were comparing their satisfaction graph with different stages of living in other countries. They were curious whether I am still at the honeymoon stage (it has been only 5 weeks) or I am feeling homesick.

After that, I also listened other Japanese students presenting their experiences and transitions among those different stages when they were abroad.

And that was our last day working with Professor Strong.

On Wednesday, it was my last day at the Junior High. I would help with Mr. Moss’s and Ms. Johnson’s 2nd and 3rd grade (7th and 8th grade)  English classes. Everything went well smoothly (I guess too typically so that I did not even feel that it is the last day). During their usual Wednesday worship service, we said goodbye to all students through live stream and told our experience in Junior High.

On Thursday, it was just another day with many chat room sessions. Our topic of the day was “color,” and this was the first time ever where I struggled keeping the conversation going. That was a challenge that I faced leading the chat session. After my work shift, I went to meet Chris, Emma, and Connor to celebrate Chris’s birthday. First, we went to eat sushi, then we went to karaoke. Chris, Emma, and Connor already had been to Karaoke before, but for Michael, Jamie, and me, it was first time in Japan (However, I have been to karaoke in Korea a lot).

It was a fun day! IWU REUNION!!

On Friday, I had a normal chat sessions with Shibuya residents and AGU students. I do not know why, but we all decided to talk about other than our topic of the day. Our conversation was more of telling our life experiences and exchanging new stories/information. I was able to look back at my life/experiences and tell what I learned and felt from those things. Also, I told how I ended up being current “Min Hyuk.” I realized that conversation does not have to be hard or complicated and we do not have to use difficult vocabularies to have such valuable discussions and talks.

Saturday & Sunday:

This weekend was the climax of my life in Japan, and what I did during the weekend made me title this week’s post “Finding a new goal.” I went to climb Mount Fuji all the way to the top by myself!!!  My schedule looked like this:

5:55pm. – bus goes to Mount Fuji 5th station (half point of Mount Fuji 1800m)

 

8:03 pm. – I arrived at the 5th station and I bought a stick with bells, which I can use to support myself and be more safe.

8:30 pm. – After all the preparation, my unknown journey starts. (it was very very dark)

 

While climbing up, I met two people (one Russian guy who is in Japan for an academic research conference and a professor in Law from America, currently teaching in China). I was able to talk with them in Russian and in English, so it surprised me again. It’s been  a long time meeting both American and Russian at the same time and talking to them/translating.

4:23 am. – I reached the top and found a spot to watch beautiful and majestic sunrise.

5:00 am. – I start my way down to my starting point

9:24 am. – I am back to my starting point!

It basically took me 8 hours to reach the top of the mountain, but it was extremely difficult for me. I did not have proper equipment, like mountain shoes, warm clothes/jacket, head flashlight, and etc. I faced so many challenges starting from very dangerous and rough rocky paths to the top, very steep paths, thin air (not enough oxygen), altitude sickness (serious headache and exhaustion), strong wind, and cold temperature. I felt that I did not have enough oxygen. I was not able to walk more than 5 min., so I had to have some rest every 6~10 minutes.

I was very scared. It was dark, it was raining, and I was alone. I did not go through proper training and never climbed a mountain before. After reaching the top and came back home, this amazing and challenging experience motivated me. I almost gave up at 8.5th station because of serious headache and exhaustion (altitude sickness) and the other two people also said that they might of given up. But we all said that we supported and encouraged each other to reach the top.

This was a very meaningful experience for me, and I will never forget this achievement.

 

#IWU#IWUFreeman#MountFuji#3770m#motivation#Ididit

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Week 4: “Fading Stage”

After finishing with my fourth week in Japan, I do have mixed feelings now. I knew that I would not be excited as my first week, but I was not expecting this fading stage to come this fast. I start getting tired during the day, having harder time to be excited for the people that I meet here, and that of controlling my emotions. Also, starting from this week, I start feeling that it is time for me to leave this place soon.

For Monday, like the other Mondays, I led chat room session for Shibuya residents (Seniors in Shibuya). Topic of the day was manners. I was able to hear what kind of opinions and thoughts the seniors had about young generations. On that day, I also went to Aoyama High School to lead English chat session with a same topic, and I was able to hear what high school students think about the manner, too. When I compared their thoughts and examples of manners, I found different thoughts and point of views. Elders think that young people nowadays do not have good manners and respect towards the elders. On the other hand, high school students said that they do respect elders, and some of the things that disturbs elders is due to changing society and lifestyle. Later of that day, I had elementary chat session and we played English games. Kids were very funny and we had great time playing games.

For dinner, I ate Gyu-Katsu. This is a really interesting food, because fried beef comes out half cooked, so the outer part is fried like that but inside you have basically a raw beef steak. We need to finish cooking with our small rock-grill. It was amazing! I really recommend this to everyone!

On Tuesday, I went to the Elementary. I helped with 6th grade’ English class again like always. BUT!! It was my last day with the 6th graders, so Michael and I gave small presentation about ourselves. I mainly focused talking about my experience in Russia and in Russian public school. Students were very surprised and interested learning things about Russia. I enjoyed the time there, and I had a lot of fun and good time look back at my life in Russia. My memory used to be all scrambled and all over the places. Through the preparation, I straightened nicely into an interesting story.

*Note: We took pictures, but we cannot use and post those pictures on any form of mass media due to school policy. That is why I did not put any pictures of us in the class room.

On Wednesday,  I went to the Junior High, but this time we recorded ourselves reading English books for their listening practice. I felt little bit awkward at the beginning, but I did it anyways. And I went to the High School during their lunch session to lead discussion. This time it was all boys, so I was little bit surprised. This time it was a “free topic” day, so I would first ask them to introduce themselves and talk about things that each person likes for an icebreaker. Then I would talk about sports, video games, and college life. They seemed very interested in my experience in Russia and in the US. The 40 min. chat session always feels short. I had to go back to the Junior High and help with David sensei’s English class during the 5th period and Korean class for 6th period. Both went smoothly. 

After finishing up with the Junior High schedule, I went back to the University Chat Room and waited for my Tohoku session. If you do not remember what Tohoku session is, let me tell you again! In 2011, Japan had a serious earthquake in Tohoku with a magnitude 9.0–9.1. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that reached heights of up to 40.5 metres (133 ft), which traveled 10 km (6mi.) inland. It was a horrible incident. So the university is providing students in Tohoku area free chat sessions. Last time when I did the Tohoku session, the internet connection in Tohoku was bad. I would have 5 to 6 seconds delay during skype video call, so it was very hard to keep them focus and continue the discussion. I was worried little bit this time as well. However, connection was very good and I did not have any delay during the skype call. I was very thankful that it went successfully.

On Thursday, I went to Sagamihara by myself and for the last time (Michael and Jamie will go next and the week after each). I had a busy day again: leading English, Korean sessions and helping professors with their English classes. Students that I met this time seemed very tired, quiet, and not interested in learning English. But I did my best, and tried to keep the conversation going. I also went to the writing intensive class, and helped students with writing. If students have any questions, they can ask me, but as I said they were tired, shy, and quiet. No one would raise hand, so I would come up to them and ask if I can read and help if I see some things to change. When I did that, students seemed to have more fun and interactive.

After fishing with my schedule at Sagamihara campus, I went to eat Okonomiyaki by myself. Okonomiyaki is a food that was founded in Tokyo. It is like a veggie pancake. It has lots of vegetables (mainly cabbage), but you can also put anything you want by ordering more ingredients. As you can see in the picture, I added pork and egg. It was delicious. (A+, Highly recommended)

On Friday, I had my last day with the Elementary school. I will have 5th graders for the last time, and I will do presentations for 5th graders. In the morning I was making a poster so that students will remember me and I also wrote letters to both 6th and 5th graders. 

I showed pictures of St.Petersburg, my Russian school, and summer and winter picture of the same place like this:

When students saw this picture, they were shocked that people were walking on the canal! But yes… Russia gets really really cold during the winter. I had great time in the Elementary and I was very happy to help students and get to know them. I will definitely miss them all. 

It was the week when I start getting used to my work, and my life in Japan is becoming more of a routine than new experiences.This week was not that smooth and I faced some emotional difficulties because of my personal issues and stresses. I definitely felt that I my honeymoon stage is fading, but having depressing moments allowed me to step back and look at my own behaviors objectively. I realized that having hard time at a foreign country does not always happen because of cultural differences or local people. Because I cannot do any of my hobbies, like playing basketball, play instruments, and different things that I need to do, I was stressed out and went through some emotional difficulties. However, helping students and talking to them gave me happiness as you can see in many of my pictures.

This week was very confusing week with my mixed feelings.

#Japan#IWU#AGU#IWUFreeman

See you next week!

Week 3: Routine

Hello everyone,

My third week has passed successfully. I start getting used to my work and what I am doing here in Japan. It has been very busy, full 3 weeks.

For Monday, I spent my day at AGU Chat Room meeting Shibuya residents (elders, who come to the chat room to practice their English), university students, and elementary students. I also had a Japanese session, where I get to speak Japanese with a Japanese chat leader. It was hard, but very interesting for me. Having chat sessions with the university students is always fun and I am able to get to know more about their life and thoughts. For my last session, I had elementary students for a chat session (we mostly play games that requires them to use English, like Time Bomb, Hangman, Two truths and a lie, and etc.) 

For Tuesday, I went to visit the Elementary 6th  graders and help their English class. First of all, I felt really bad for not remembering many of the students’ names. Secondly, I could not speak Japanese very well, so I could not have that much conversation with students to get to know each other. I During the class, I helped students with their reading assignment and check, and writing as well. We have four 6th grade English classes consecutively, so after the forth one, I tend to get little bit tired.  After having lunch at school cafeteria, I had chat sessions with university students first, then I had another one with elementary students (playing English games).

Wednesday is my Aoyama Junior High School day. I went to the Junior High and helped Mr.Moss with his English class again.  For his elective class (5th period), students faced topic of Gender Equality. This really shocked and surprised me, because Japan is the country with the lowest ranking in term of gender equality. The topic was “Boys vs. Girls,” and students had to think of some things that they see as gender inequality in their school or places they live. After that, I also attended Korean class and helped students with reading and speaking. I noticed that all the students, who came to Korean class, were girls. Moreover, the main reason that most of them started learning Korean was love for K-Pop. After finishing all 6 periods, I went back to AGU Chat Room and led a chat session with university students talking about “Internet and Technology.”

For Thursday, Michael, Jamie, and I went to Sagamihara that takes about one and a half hours. Morning was fairly free, because no one signed up for morning chat sessions. This is when I started to realize that students in Sagamihara campus do not study English as much as students in Aoyama campus. I went to Mori sensei’s English class agina, but I encountered different students (all freshmen). They were less energetic, so it felt so much harder to lead conversations with them. Also I went to Prof. Masayoshi’s writing class, and helped students with their in-class writing assignments.

On Friday, I went to the Elementary again, but this time was for 5th grade English Class. I helped grading exams and after that I would join the class and help with class materials.

After all the classes, students had English Club. Today, we went out and played “Zombie” (basically, a tag). They had a really nice school quad, where they can take off their shoes and just enjoy the nature, run around, and play with their friends. They were really good at acting like zombies. (A+)

After we finished with our work, we went out to eat with our supervisors from the Chat Room. They took us to a seafood place, where we get to fish for our meal inside of this restaurant!!!!

Our food was very fresh, since we caught the fish right before we cooked and ate it. Simply amazing….

On Saturday, we went to Ooedo Onsen (hot spring) in Odaiba. Amazing thing about this place is that you get to try both hot spring and yukata (Japanese traditional clothes). So here we go!

I chose that yukata, and first you need to go into the locker room and change your clothes.  When you come out you will see this….

It is decorated like a street during some kind of festival. It was pretty. Then me and Michael went to try hot spring, and there are no pictures for an obvious reason; we don’t wear any thing or cover our bodies with anything.

After being in hot spring for hour an , my body felt so relaxed and we were all so sleepy, so we took a nap at a sofa room for a little bit. I had so much fun there, and I recommend everyone who comes to Tokyo to visit Ooedo Onsen!

So…that was my week 3. See you all again next week!

Week 2: “Getting used to it”

After a week  in Japan, I start going to bed later. (overcoming jet lag). I also start getting used to my job in the chat room. And my first two weeks in Japan has past quicker than I expected.

First day of the week, I went to Sagamihara Campus, which is another campus of AGU. This campus is mainly for students with Engineering and Science majors. They still have English class and chat room, where they can practice their English. However, I noticed that English proficiency of students in  Aoyama Campus were higher than that of students in Sagamihara. So, we went to Sagamihara to help teachers with their English classes and chat room. During the English class, students had prepared some simple questions for us, and they would have opportunity to have conversation in English.  On Tuesday, I spend the morning at the Elementary School. I helped with 6th grade’ English class. I introduced myself to the class and then students asked more questions about things they wanted to know about us. They would ask what do I like (food, sports, animals, colors, and etc.) At first I was little bit nervous, but by the end, I understand the way of communicating with kids here. After lunch break, I had chat sessions with Elementary students. However, this was more of spending time with those students and playing games, like hang man, time bomb, and etc. (English Practice)

On Wednesday, I went to the Junior High School doing the same thing as last week, helping David sensei. After lunch break, we would join the elective classes (English, Math). For English class it was basically encouraging students to speak more English, but for Math class, we had to help students with pronunciation of different shapes and English math terms. In Aoyama Junior High School, they learn math in English! After school, students also have many different clubs that they can join, and I joined Handball Club. I practiced handball with guys. That was a lot of fun. I have not exercised for so long since I came to Japan…

Lastly, on Thursday and Friday, we went to the High School and did a presentation. It was called “Study Abroad and Cultural Sensitivity. We did the same presentation for 6 classes in total! We introduced ourselves, and talked about our life and personal backgrounds. Then we would also introduce IWU, and share our school life in Wesleyan. And then we talked about what is culture and what is cultural sensitivity. The reason that I wanted to talk about culture and cultural sensitivity is because many students in Aoyama High School were returnees or thinking of study abroad. So I thought knowing different culture is very important knowledge and cultural difference is vital thing to be aware of.

After the presentation, students wrote some brief comments, and I was deeply touched, encouraged, and motivated by their comments.

Many students were encouraged to go abroad and study English harder. They also commented that they learned many things through our presentation and became more open-minded! And here are some comments that students wrote:

” I learned that if I want to improve my English, I must not keep silent but speak to foreigners more! Thank your for your presentation. It encouraged me a lot.”

“Thank you for sharing your life and important things about knowing culture! I was surprised at your presentation!”

“From now on, I will try to speak more regardless of my grammatical mistakes or what other people are going to think about me.”

“I was scared to go outside of Japan or live in different countries and scared to face cultural difference. After your presentation, I gained more confidence.”

And now…Traveling Time!~

Here are some food that I ate this week!

I went to Asakusa Shrine. I really liked this place. Also before you get to the shrine, they have a very long market place with many souvenir and street food. I really recommend this place. (A+)

In Asakusa Shrine, they have fortune telling place as well. You pay 100 yen (about $1) and shake a jar with full of wooden sticks. You pick one out randomly, and you will have a number. Those characters are numbers written in Kanji, and you pull out the paper that tells your fortune. (I got bad one, so I won’t share…)

If you get a bad one, you tie it on this bar and pray that god will help you and protect you from those bad spirits.

So yeah~

That was my second week!

#IWU#IWUFreeman#Tokyo#Japan#Chatroom#Adventure

Week 1: Adjustment, Challenges, and Learning.

Good morning everyone,

So before even starting my first day, there is a problem… Why am I fully awake at             3 am.!!!! One of the challenges that you will face in your first week: Jet-lag. Well well… I unpacked my stuffs, cleaned, and organized my room around 4~5 am. and then, to be honest, I watched YouTube videos about Tokyo traveling.

Anyhow, time is up! I need to get ready to head out for my first day!

* If anyone is planning to come to Japan, that cereal is the best. One bowl of cereal and apple is a pretty nice, low-cost solid breakfast. Also, Japanese apples are really really sweet and delicious, highly recommended.

And let’s find our way to go to University!

But….um…..

 

Yeah right…. It is complicated, crowded, and chaotic. Just try to stand there for 5 min., you will have some headache. However, thanks to our university we are living only 2 stations away from Shibuya (where we need to get off to go to AGU. The location is amazing and convenient to go anywhere that is famous! A++

Here we are at Aoyama Gakuin University ChatRoom! 

Everyone welcomed us, and Kanda Mari, our supervisor, lead orientation for us.

Our schedule is fully through out 6 weeks, and we will be leading chat rooms for university students, Shibuya residents, help elementary, middle, high schools, and work with professors in AGU.

 

* Q/A session with AGU students during their international communication senior seminar session.

 

 

This is elementary school classroom that is very clean and organized. On our second day we went to elementary school in the morning and saw other exchange students leading a session with students.

This is middle school, and we will be helping David sensei with his English class.

 

 

And here is some pictures of Shibuya.

*How do you feel about carrying $10 worth coins. This is not bad at all, because I have been using my coins all the time.  Usually, you are going to have more than that…

 

 

Anyways, I also have some pictures of food that I tried in Japan!

 

They were all so good. Ootoya, AGU cafeteria’s Katsu Curry, Ichiran Ramen, Soba, Sushi, Korean BBQ, etc.

I wish I had more pictures taken from my chat room sessions, but I keep forgetting to take one… I hope next week I will have more of those pictures….

There are some new Japanese students that I met through other chat leaders in AGU! I think I am getting used to my life in Japan. now I also start to plan to go to onsen (Japanese hot spring), climb Mount Fuji, and etc.

This was a successful first week of Min Hyuk in Tokyo, Japan.

See you all next week with other great stories!

#IWU#IWUFreeman#Tokyo#Japan#Chatroom#Adventure

Day 1: Departure and my new home.

June 1st, 2018: It is my last day for my May Term course, a day to move out from my room,  a day to say goodbye to many people, and a day to start my new adventure! What a day with so many feelings! Stressed, busy, excited, scared, anxious, and joyful. I was calling and texting to my friends and family until the plane started to move.

 

 

Get ready for 14 hours of flight from Chicago (ORD) to Incheon, Rep. of Korea (ICN)!

 

 

And now I am in Korea!

Oh, I forgot to tell you that since the departure from O’Hare, I was feeling little bit uncomfortable and strange when I saw so many Koreans around me. Even though I have been to Incheon International Airport so many times, I had different feelings this time.

First thing I wanted to do after such a long flight was  take a shower. I felt disgusting and oily. (ugh!!!…) But guess what? We are at  one of the largest and busiest airports in the world, so it is famous to have EVERYTHING. I found what I needed.. A free shower room. (good job Korea, A+)

After having some rest, next thing that came to my mind was food… I was hungry (I am serious). So I went to a Korean restaurant.

 

 

Time is up! Let’s hop in to our plane to Japan.

 

 

I am proud to announce that we have safely arrived in Japan and I am proud to represent IWU in Japan with my t-shirt and IWU  lanyard. After getting our luggage, we went to buy airport limousine ticket (3100 Yen = $30-$31). The bus arrived RIGHT on time, so we are headed to Shinjuku to meet Mari, our supervisor.

After check-in process, setting meeting spot for a next day, we finally arrived “home.”

 

 

 

#IWU#IWUFreeman#Japan#Tokyo

IWU Freeman Asia: AGU