'Good Morning Takamatsu' Elementary School Textbook & DVD Project

From November through to January, my fellow JETs and I have been working on a whole new curriculum for elementary schools in Takamatsu City. Bringing our background with filmmaking and video production into play, Angie and I produced, directed, filmed and edited all of the content for a brand new DVD for elementary school English education, featuring videos of all of the Takamatsu City ALTs.

The "Good Morning Takamatsu" textbook.

This April, elementary schools from all around Takamatsu City received the "Good Morning Takamatsu" textbook and DVD set. It's now in use in classrooms all around the city, for students between first and fourth year (who currently have no official national curriculum at this age).

The title screen for the "Good Morning Takamatsu" DVD.

Here's a small video from local news coverage on the launch. Note that this video also features me doing several of my best animal impressions:

The project was commissioned by our former supervisor, Sunao Hiramatsu. The lessons of the curriculum were all written by ALTs in Takamatsu City, and compiled into a single volume by Ben Jacques-Parr (with the curriculum being decided upon in dialogue with everyone). The textbook was illustrated by Gary Wilkinson, who also put together the fantastic logo which also doubles as the DVD cover. Lessons were translated into Japanese by Nick Powers, and proofreading was undertaken by Mary Thanh Vo.

The videos produced by myself and Angie (or Gavin Hugh and Angharad Sian Reynolds if we're being formal) include: a self-introduction montage from all of the city ALTs; alphabet, number and phonics videos; videos which correspond with lessons in the textbook; and a number of game demonstrations for use as activities in the classroom. You can watch the self-introduction video on my YouTube channel below:

The "Good Morning Takamatsu" DVD.

I've included a sample of stills from the DVD content; it was a lot of fun to complete, and a very satisfying project to bring to life in the space of just four months.

It was great to be able to put my video production skills to this task. Unfortunately, as this project was commissioned by the Takamatsu City Board of Education, it will only be distributed to schools within Takamatsu City accordingly. So, sad news for the other ALTs in Japan who may have wanted to use it (although luckily the Takamatsu ALTs were each rewarded with their own set).

Still, I think this was a very positive project to try and improve the English education curriculum in the local elementary schools, and I'd love to hear about or see similar projects from local JET groups in other parts of Japan.

Curry Nights at Thali Spice

Dinner at Thali Spice in 2012.

Something of a tradition here for the Kagawa JETs. Usually on Thursday evenings, almost every week, members of the foreign community in Takamatsu (and the nearby area) descend on the Thali Spice restaurant in the Shotengai shopping streets. It's a Nepalese and Indian restaurant, and it's damned good.

This tradition mostly started by having dinners with departed-ALTs Jasper Wood and Danny Blackwell, as well as Arran Chambers. The four of us would frequently meet during Jasper and Danny's time in Japan, occasionally joined by a few other people. In addition to that, I often found myself coming along with non-JET American Sam Jones, where we'd often get together and talk movie reviews or just hang out with a group. Eventually these traditions just sort of stuck, Thursday after Thursday.

With Matt Katch (left) and Sam Jones.

And so, as more and more foreigners have started to come more and more frequently, the restaurant finds itself full of foreigners nigh-on every Thursday night. With good reason, too; the curries are exceptional.

My traditional set.

For my own part, I'm afraid I'm not usually terribly adventurous; I usually get the same meal every time I go, because I enjoy it so much. In actual fact, the waiters can repeat my order back to me before I even give it these days (which may give you an indication of how often I go there). I almost always getting the mutton masala, spice level three, with a huge butter naan bread and a lassie to drink. At least I'm consistent.

I have to say, it will be a sad day when I finally leave Japan and I won't be able to have any more of these curries again. Until then, well, expect to see me there on Thursdays.

Movie review madness.

Round One

One of the places our place of JETs frequently visits in Takamatsu is 'Round One'.

There are several 'Round One' venues across Japan, and if the one in Takamatsu is anything to go by, then they're all quite incredible.

The 'Round One' in Takamatsu consists of several floors of entertainments and amusements. The lower floors are filled with slot machines and pachinko, while a little further up is a full bowling alley complete with several lanes. Slightly above that is a full rollerskating rink, along with a whole host of video-game arcade machines and air hockey (there must be at least more than fifty in there - all free when included in the price of entry). Above that, you'll find a pool hall and a massage lounge, spa, and (I think) a gym, which is all next to one of those fake bulls that you can ride before falling off onto an inflatable floor.

Above that, you'll find a huge sports hall. This includes a football pitch, a badminton and tennis net, mini-golf, a pool for fishing in, a baseball practice area and basketball hoops. Oh, and a driving range for golfers, among many other things.

As you can imagine, it's an amazing place to spend an evening. If there's any criticism, it's that the food isn't quite so great.

On Friday 4th October, we visited 'Round One' as part of fellow ALT Gary Wilkinson's birthday celebrations for his girlfriend Risako. As you can tell from these photographs, we had a fantastic time, though I'm afraid I barely captured even a fraction of what's available there.

Takamatsu North JHS Speech Contest 2013

On Saturday 21st September, I experienced another round of the annual Takamatsu North JHS speech contest. This was my third time at the contest. The two students from Katsuga Junior High School were Nakano-san and Karato-san (Yune from my eikaiwa group).

Nakano-san performed a rendition of a rakugo play in English, with an amusing one-man show of a con-man trying to avoid paying the full bill at a noodle shop, while Yune wrote her speech on her experiences in Okinawa and her thoughts on World War 2 and peace.

Both Nakano-san and Yune performed excellently, with Nakano-san managing to come in second place in the recitation category. Not bad at all!

A Trip to a Pokemon Movie: Mewtwo vs Genesect

Mewtwo vs Genesect!

As is probably well known by now, being in Japan somewhat reignited my love of Pokemon somewhat (to the point that I even set up a local Facebook group for Fife Pokemon fans back home in Scotland). The games still continue to engage me on my DS, and it's been quite fun to get back into such a good RPG franchise.

Still, I'd given up on the Pokemon anime series years ago (around about the time I started high school, naturally). I hadn't watched a single episode of Pokemon since then. Well, no matter; with a new Pokemon movie coming out this year, I decided I simply had to go - as something I owed to my eleven year old self. So, last Sunday, Angie and I went along to the Aeon Cinema in Takamatsu to check out the new movie; "Mewtwo vs Genesect".

Well, it was... er, not great.

Post-screening blues: you can tell I look a tad deflated.

(Spoilers ahead.)

The film is basically your typical story, and a bit of a rip-off of the first Pokemon movie (which is the only other one I've watched). Basically, five laboratory-grown Pokemon named Genesect break out of their lab and search for a new home (we're never given any backstory as to who made them or why). Meanwhile, a brand new (!) female Mewtwo has been born in what appears to be another secret lab by another group of scientists (?!). This Mewtwo has since learned the value of friendship with it's Pokemon pals before the start of the movie (?!?), though distrusts humans (like the original Mewtwo). The Genesect attack a Pokemon sanctuary / park where Ash (and his rubbish new friends) happen to visiting in order to make it their new home (no idea why they had to aggressively invade it, mind you). Ash and Pikachu do almost nothing for the whole film while the new Mewtwo fights the Genesect and eventually teaches them the power of friendship and love, with the usual clichés, etc. Yadda yadda yadda... Uninspired, and almost identical to the plot of the first movie that I watched when I was a kid.

It's... terrible. It really is. Unless you're five. Maybe.

Also, Team Rocket show up for a couple of very brief cameos and do nothing of any note. They have no bearing on the plot or any interaction with the main cast whatsoever. Very disappointing considering they were the best part of the show when I watched it (they have pretty much nothing to do here). Additionally, Brock and Misty are nowhere to be seen (though apparently they were written out years ago, for some reason). Their replacements are terrible - especially the green-haired goon who keeps spouting nonsense in English like "SU-PAH SU-WEET!".

I honestly don't know why they didn't just use the same Mewtwo character that's been in the films before. If the character has exactly the same backstory, then what's the point? There's tons of flashbacks to it's origin anyway, so would it really have been so difficult to sync them up?

The movie is also preceeded by a twenty-ish minute short where Pikachu and a few of his Pokemon pals meet a new Eevee evolution and have various fun adventures with it and other Eevee evolutions. Fairly harmless, but I did feel a bit stupid at 25 watching something clearly intended for the very, very youngest members of the audience. Danny Glover has this covered. It also has an extended five minute sequence where the cast stare at various screensavers (and no, I'm not making that up). It's really just too long for what it's supposed to be, but maybe the kids enjoyed it.

What struck me most about this was how little the characters seem to have grown in the decade or so since I stopped watching the show. Ash appears no better a Pokemon trainer than the last time I saw him. There seems to be honestly no point in watching this series, because the character will simply never catch them all. As soon as Nintendo brings out a new game, he has another hundred or so to catch - yet he hasn't even caught all of the last set each time (in fact, he used to actively let them go for some reason). Essentially; the series becomes pointless as there is no conceivable end or conclusion to it. It will simply endure in perpetuity as long as it is profitable.

You can watch the full trailer for the movie here (or below). Strangely, a lot of footage from this trailer isn't in the actual movie itself - these scenes seem to have been animated specifically for the trailer. Many of the events pan out completely differently here (it must also be said that Team Rocket has almost as much screen time in the trailer as they do in the film!).

Overall, I have to say that I don't think I'll be going to any Pokemon movies again in future. It's clearly aimed at kids much, much younger than myself. While the game series continues to be a great RPG franchise that I still love to play, I'm reminded that I stopped watching the anime on TV years ago for a reason; I had simply outrgown it, and the nostalgia factor sadly didn't make up for it's limitations on this occasion.

Still... I can't say there wasn't just the *tiniest* part of me that didn't remember the good times when I was a wee boy, watching this show after school.

Don't get me wrong, though. This movie was awful.

Lantern Walk in Mure

On Friday, fellow ALT Julia Collie held a Tex-Mex party at her house. It was a lovely way to spend the evening catching up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while (following my recent break away back to Scotland). I also got to meet a brand new ALT in the form of Adam Simonini (another Canadian!).

Following dinner, we went out onto the streets of Mure where Julia lives. At this time of year, they display a lantern festival where all of the houses display fascinating lanterns of all different types on their doorsteps, as well as a few more public ones scattered on the walk.

Here are a selection of some of the highlights from our walk.

Shionoe Onsen

Stephen and Sylvain at Shionoe Onsen.

Coming back to Japan after being in Scotland is always a little difficult. It's not just the jetlag that bites (although that is definitely a contributing factor), but the sense of having readjusted to your home life and having it suddenly snatched away from you again. Your friends and family that you love have suddenly disappeared. While I'm lucky enough to have travelled with Angie (which definitely helped the transition), it it can still be quite a challenge

I was worried that my first days back would be very uneventful and that it might get me down. Additionally, I'd missed all of the usual summer events and introductions to the new JETs in Kagawa (argh!), meaning I had a lot of catching up to do on the social scene.

The beautiful Shionoe Onsen village.

Luckily, I was invited on my very first weekend back to go to the Shionoe Onsen (by that lovely Canadian Stephen Branston and brand new Kagawa ALT Sylvain Fortin-McCuaig). Definitely a way to beat the post-home blues.

Beautiful Shionoe.

I recently spoke about my time at the Shionoe Firefly Festival in June, and how I had wanted to visit the onsen there but simply didn't have time on my previous visit. Luckily, this would be a great chance to experience Takamatsu's famous hot-spring villiage (which, if I'm honest, I'm amazed is still considered to be a part of Takamatsu since it's so far out from the city centre).

Getting picked up by Sylvain in his car near Stephen's home in Ayagawa, we first popped over to the nearby Aeon mall for the purpose of getting lunch (naturally, ramen noodles), before making the long drive up to Shionoe. Sylvain, another Canadian, had recently moved in to take over from departing JET Justin Bussies, and this would be his third visit to his local onsen since arriving only a few weeks earlier. There was a fireworks festival in Shionoe that evening that a few of the other JETs would be attending, but unfortunately I wouldn't be able to stay for it, so it was great that I was able to join up with Stephen and Sylvain during the day.

Shionoe was, once again, absolutely beautiful: this time it felt even more so due to to the absence of the festival stalls that had been there previously. We were in exactly the same spot as the firefly festival had been, to attend the exact onsen that I'd wanted to visit previously. I was pretty chuffed.

The onsen itself was a very quiet and modest affair, run by just a single woman and with only a few small pools for relaxing in. Of particular highlights were the outside pool complete with the noise of the local cicadas, and the underground sauna which was - frankly - roasting, but refreshing.

Naturally, I can't show you any photographs of our time inside the onsen (I'm not one for photographing pictures of other naked men), but it was a very relaxing experience as always, and I managed to enjoy myself with one of those spectacular Ramune drinks (and, in the onsen tradition, a bottle of milk afterwards).

I made my way back into town on the bus (while, ironically, Angie would be coming up to Shionoe to go to the fireworks event herself). It was regrettable that I wouldn't be able to go to the festival, but it was still a great little gesture to be invited along on my first weekend back, and I was pleased to have met at least one of the new ALTs. I really had a great time.

Stephen enjoys his post-onsen milk.

I'd love to spend more time at that onsen, but it's just that little bit too far away from my town of Kozai. Still, I'll make a point of heading back there where I can.