More Apartment Talk

Woke up at 7:15am, cereal for breakfast, and set off for school. Bit of an eventful morning in the staffroom when 2 swallows flew in and stayed perched on top on the whiteboard for a while! They eventually flew out the open windows in the kitchen area by themselves thankfully. First up today was 1-1 in period 2, and it was just a fun lesson throughout. We were on the 2nd hour of sports, and played the missing game, and sports basket today. The kids successfully learnt to ask, “What sports do you like?” and answer “I like (sport)” so that was great. 100% enthusiasm from them all, it was a perfect lesson. This time I was prepared for the spare 5 minutes at the end that we always seem to have, and downloaded a sports song video from Youtube to show them. They loved the video, and were just laughing at the most random things (the video wasn’t even meant to be funny?). I love how joyful the kids are over here, their smiles are so effortless and never seem to leave their faces. 1-2 was just as good in period 3.

5-2 in period 4, and despite it being a textbook activity heavy lesson (two rounds of long-ish listening activities today) they still did the work enthusiastically with no complaints! I reckon they did great with the listening activities, they were able to pick out the answers from the conversation, and answered correctly using “(Character’s name) likes dancing” etc. We finished off with doing the next part of the birthday card activity (writing Happy Birthday to your partner, and drawing a picture of what they want for their birthday), and managed to squeeze in some alphabet practice too. Lunch today with 4-2 again, and for some reason they were very slow in serving the food today, so even though normally you start eating from 12:30~12:40, we started actually eating at 12:50 today, which is normally the time they normally finish eating! We all still managed to finish eating and packing up on time. 5-1 in period 5 and it was also a good lesson. I think they’re slowly starting to come out of their shell – a few different kids (who don’t normally put up their hands) attempted to answer today, so that was really encouraging. We didn’t get onto the alphabet worksheet, but that was ok. They really did the listening activities well though – normally 5-1 struggles a bit, but I paused the video and split it into parts for them today, and with some hints/help from their homeroom teacher and myself, they were able to catch everything said today. They couldn't stop laughing at umbrella for some reason though haha.

I was in the staffroom doing lesson prep in the spare period 6, when one of the kids from 6-1 (the one who tries his best in speaking at all times, even if that means just speaking in Japanese with a foreign accent ha) invited me to their social studies lesson in the parking lot, where they were making comma-shaped necklaces, which people in the Jomon period made to ward away evil spirits. We used sandpaper to shape this white, marble-like rock, and then a finer sandpaper to smooth it out, and then finally in water with this black sandpaper to make it super smooth. All the kids were saying ツルツル and one kid (the one who calls himself Mighty Thor) was hilariously saying how the necklace stone is more smooth (ツルツル) than his head (cause it’s shaved bald) haha. It was a lot of fun, and the kids were so excited to see me there, and were bubbling with enthusiasm in teaching me how to make the necklace. I was very thankful to 6-1’s teacher for inviting me!

Got off work at 16:15 and drove to the BOE (because it was raining) to ask about apartment stuff. Although the BOE can’t be my guarantor for the new apartment, or really do anything to help with setting up the new apartment (their terms and conditions state that any ALT that moves out of the housing provided by the BOE has to do everything on their own), the supervisor was still quite helpful in helping with Japanese terms I didn't understand, and the closing of the current apartment lease. She phoned Leopalace and found out for me what I need to do when moving out. Turns out I will have to wait till August before I can move out – if I want to cut the contract and move out early, I’d have to pay at least ¥40,000. So I’ll wait. The other stuff was pretty standard, though the cleaning fee of ¥30,780 kinda stinks too. At least the actual moving out on the day seems fairly easy, because you just leave your key in the post box once you’re done! I thought somebody would come and check your place before you could leave, but apparently they send someone later to check, and if there’s anything that needs to be fixed (e.g. any damages) they’ll bill it to me later. Other stuff you need to do when moving houses is telling the City Hall that you’ve moved, telling the post office you’ve moved, changing the address on your drivers license, telling the BOE and your school you’ve moved, and that’s about it. The main challenge/obstacle for me now is finding a guarantor, but the BOE supervisor told me some real estate agencies give you the option of paying extra to have the guarantor requirement removed. I asked a senior ALT and he had one of his coworkers be his guarantor, so I guess I’ll just have to ask around some more. Other major things I’ll have to do by myself is call the gas company to stop the gas at my current place when I move out (thankfully the BOE will deal with water and electricity for me!), and start the water/electricity/gas at my new place by myself. After she called Leopalace, we set the move out date to August 3rd, since that’s the earliest I can move out without breaking contract. Felt much better after going to see the BOE, now I know all the steps I need to take in order to move out in August!