Omiyage Advice

Here is some advice I received from a friend before going to Japan to teach English. Perhaps this will be of use to you new JETs/ALTs/English Language Teachers.

"You should bring お土産 (omiyage). It's true that it might not be

expected of you, since you're a foreigner and are coming from a non-
omiyage culture. But it's a nice gesture and will always be
appreciated, and will help you get off on the right foot with your new
overlords. 

As Janice says, food is the main form of omiyage in Japan, usually
individually-wrapped snacks from wherever the person comes from/
visited on vacation. So, I'd look for a snack or candy that reflects
your local area (or at least has the name of your local area on the
tin/box). Nuts, snack mixes, pretzels, etc. Hard candy is also a great
idea. 

Don't bring chocolate. It will melt. 

For the kids, bring prizes. This is different than the omiyage you
bring to your office/schools. Stickers, stamps, loose change,
postcards, playing cards with pictures of your area on them, etc. Even
if you're teaching only high school. You'll be surprised how
competitive jaded high school kids will get just to snag that coveted
smiley ladybug sticker you brought. 

On that subject, a fun thing to do with the kids is passports. Make up
mock passports for each student and stamp your inkan on the visa pages
every time they win a game, answer a question, etc.
When a student gets a certain number of stamps, give them a big prize
like a book of stickers, an American flag, or purikura of you with
cartoon poop on your head."

Off to a good start!

Well!  The first day of NaNoWriMo and I'm off to a decent start!  I've written 2,255 words for my story today, which is 589 words more than I needed.  It really doesn't matter how many words I write a day, as long as I write an average of 1,666 to accomplish the 50,000 word goal by the end.  I bet it will be difficult to find time to write on some days due to whatever, so writing over the daily goal is probably a good thing.  I'd love to write more tonight, but after my English lesson with a co-worker and getting ready for work related things for tomorrow I don't think I'll have enough time.  It's already near 9 and I tend to be in bed by 10.  I wish I was (were? I can never remember this rule...) the type that could run on no sleep. Then I could probably get everything accomplished!  Perhaps my real problem is that I have too many interests and there simply aren't enough hours in the day to support them all. ^_^
So far on the first day, I've found that my friends' progress in NaNoWriMo is a big motivator to write more.  On the website there is an option to befriend other people also involved in the project, and if they update their status you can see how many words they've written and what percentage they have finished.  The competitive side of me wants to stay ahead, so as long as my friends are writing and updating, I'll probably be able to get motivation and inspiration from them as well as from myself.

As of now I don't think it's good enough to post any of the 2,255 words that I've written, but I'd like to post a short sample here sometime this month so keep a look out!

Hello November!