Welcome to part two of my travels! I ran out of memory on my first blog but you can visit my old post here: http://www.wherewillmyfeettakemenext.blogspot.kr/

I love to travel and have a bucket list of countries I want to visit. On the top of my list currently are India, the USA, Cambodia, Peru and New Zealand (because I love Lord of the Rings haha).

I love taking photos so expect a lot of photos in my blogs!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Disney sea and Disneyland!!

I love Donald!!
I think I went to Disney sea and Disney land 6 times during my 8 months in Tokyo. I love Disneyland in Tokyo. Everyone is so happy and friendly. Unlike California. When I went there the staff seemed angry.

I went during school time so they were not busy. We all went on the rides until we felt sick. If you are going to Tokyo, you have to visit one of them. I prefer Disney land but others like Disney sea more.


My leaving day out!

Donald Duck

Everyone wears them!!

Happy staff

Enjoying Tokyo. Shibuya

Shibuya
One of my favourite places in Tokyo was Shibuya. I was a lot younger when I lived in Japan, therefore it appealed to me.  I also felt it was what I had imagined Tokyo to be. Busy and colourful. I heard Shibuya crossing is the busiest crossing in the world. There is a Starbucks just next to it so I enjoyed sitting there watching the crowds.

Shibuya was also fantastic for shopping. I spend many hours window shopping looking at clothes I couldn't afford. I really want to go back one day for a big shopping trip.

Shibuya
I once went to a horror restaurant there. All the staff were dressed up and the tables were in cells. There was also a horror menu. It was great! At point one the light went off with a scary clown running about. It was also someones birthday so they bent him over and pretended to put a giant injection in his bum.......   Oh Japan!!



Horror drinks

It was dark when I took this picture. 

Birthday boy
 It also has a Disney shop! They love Disney over there!!

Disney shop!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

My first experience with teaching.

Leaving meal with students and the new teacher
Two months into living in Japan, I got a job as a English teacher at a private academy. I moved next to Tsurukawa Station.

They nearly put me off teaching for life. They wanted me to start the next day without any training. They knew I had no experience but didn't care. My friend who got a job at a different academy got training before starting. All I got was observing one lesson. And looking back I realise this was not a proper TEFL lesson. The old teacher didn't do lesson plans. I had nothing to refer to, except some bullet points. They blamed my accent for the lessons not going well, but in truth I was clueless and did not give the students the lessons they deserved. This was one of the worse points of my life. I felt powerless and I eventually gave up. I felt this ruined my whole experience by this points and decided to leave Tokyo 8 months after I arrived.

But, that being said, I am glad I had this experience. I used it later on during my training as what NOT to do. I did really well during my CELTA course and was told by my peers and students I was a great teacher. I have also been re-signed two times at my current job in South Korea. I could of given up teaching after what happened but instead I used it to improve. I did a TEFL course with classroom training before I came to South Korea with i-to-i and it was the best thing I ever did. If you are thinking about Teaching English then training is a must otherwise you will be over your head like I was.