It's Been Good

I was able to get off work early so I could meet my friends for our big three day weekend trip to Shikoku.  It didn’t cost me any yearly vacation time, so that was nice. With my other ALT friends, Ashley, Erica, Brian, and Alvin, we rented a van from the place where most of us bought our cars and headed out. It honestly felt like all the trips I’ve taken with my family. We reached our first destination, a small ryokan in Okayama, to spend the night. Friday morning we set out on the ferry to go to Naoshima, a little island famous for modern art (famous is relative it seems as nearly no one I talk to knows about it). Lucky for us, since the typhoon already swept through the area, it was nothing but blue skies and sunshine. The absolute perfect day for exploring. And exploring we did! We went to the Benesse House (art museum). A lovely place with captivating art exhibits. Around the island and the museum were other pieces of art outside. The giant polka-dotted pumpkins by Yayoi Kusama are probably the most famous. If anyone remembers when the Kennedy Center threw that huge Japan exhibition for a few weeks a couple years ago, think about those rooms covered in black and yellow dots. Same artist. She works with polka dots for rather disturbing and sad reasons (she allegedly was abused as a child and would see spots in her hallucinations), but it’s great that despite that tragedy, her art is so interesting.

Anyway, we cruised around the island either by car or on foot. As we looked up things to do, Alvin mentioned a cat café and I was totally and completely sold on the idea. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one on board with this idea. After we were finished with the Benesse House, we went for lunch at a small okonomiyaki place that was pleasantly cluttered with nice things outside. Reminds me of how I would decorate. We intended to try making glass beads but because it was a holiday, the glass bead lady was absent. We headed over to the Art House Projects, old houses renovated into pieces of arts and mini museums. Unfortunately, the scheduled tours didn’t work well with our relatively tight schedule so we had to abandon the hope of going inside. Instead, it was off to the cat café.

Before anyone thinks that this is entirely unsanitary, do not fret! I’m not sure how all cat cafés work, but it was literally a small house turned into this establishment. The kitchen/dining room area was dedicated to the café aspect. It had yummy looking food and delicious drinks (I got a melon soda ice cream float. I haven’t had a float in years!). In the room that would have been a bedroom is dedicated to the cats.  After we had our drinks, Ashley, Erica, and I asked the workers for 10 minutes in the cat room. Usually, it’s 500 yen for 30 minutes and then 100 yen for every 10 more minutes you spend. Again, we were running short on time, so we got in for 200 yen. We washed our hands and stepped into kitty land! We sat on couches, petting the cats, playing with them, taking their pictures (without the flash, that was the rule), and enjoying their adorable company. Once we had our fix and the time was up, we paid and left. Now I can finally say that I have been to a cat café! That’s one off my check list.

We did another loop around the island for pictures and then set sail for Takamatsu on the main island of Shikoku. We got settled into our second ryokan, laid around for a bit due to being a bit exhausted from the day, and finally got the strength to get dinner. At first we went to this place that looked gorgeous but the food was bland and the service was unbearably slow. We left as soon as we could and went to the first Starbucks that I have seen recently. Much to our dismay, there were no pumpkin spice lattes or frappaccinos. Instead, they had this apple crumble flavor. Erica and I were determined to get our autumn drinks on/I know I wanted to try it, so we ordered frappaccinos. Once again, disappointed that it didn’t taste like heaven in my mouth but it was alright. I probably wouldn’t order it again though. Whomp whomp. Our next destination was an udon shop because Takamatsu is famous for it. We had to wait in line for a while to get seated but that must have meant the food was delicious, right? Well, it was! I got curry beef udon – it was the recommended dish on the menu. For curry udon, instead of broth, it’s curry that the noodles are in. So delicious. Wow, just writing about it makes me want it again!

Shortly after dinner, we bought some snacks for the next day, headed back to the ryokan and went to sleep. Saturday was going to be adventure day! In the morning, everyone went canyoning (not my thing, so I decided to wait it out), and in the afternoon, we all went whitewater rafting. The place is run mostly by Japanese people, but many of the employees are guys from New Zealand. Some of the Japanese people there spoke with Kiwi accents – so cute! In the morning to pass the time, I continued playing Okamiden. I bought the game in Japanese, knowing that there would be much I wouldn’t understand but every time I can get more than 70% of the conversation without just guessing and using context clues is great! I’m a bit stuck now. Instructions are difficult in Japanese when I can’t read most of the characters. Oh well, that’s what the Internet is for, right?

The afternoon rolled in, we had lunch, and after a while, we set out for the river. Honestly, I was a bit scared because…well, I’m always a bit scared about outdoorsy sort of stuff because I’m not that person. I do like water though, so that was mostly what kept me going. In the midst of all of the Japanese people, my group of people had a New Zealander named Bob (I think). After a run-down on instructions, advice, precautions and whatnot, we were in the river! It was so exciting! I couldn’t stop laughing! Like the way I can’t stop laughing when I’m on a roller coaster and subsequently, after the roller coaster – such an adrenaline rush! Giddy, even. It soon became less scary and more thrilling, in a good way. Left my arms exhausted though!

After that ball of fun, it was on to our stop for the night, the lodge called Leben. Now, Leben is up on the highest mountain I have ever been on. Numerous things bothered me with this part: the road was narrow and windy, we seemed to be going up forever and the drops continued to look more and more ominous and steep, there were only a few guardrails, and to top it all off, it was dark. I tried my best to keep it together and kept my hand tightly wrapped around the door handle (not the one that opens the door, but the other one…I don’t know what else to call it) to make myself feel better. I’m surprised how much it helped. We finally made it to the top and my hand was in pain. We were led by this nice young woman to come to another cabin that was close by for dinner. For dinner, we had yakiniku with fresh meat and vegetables (there’s a farm up on the mountain)! She gave us a rather interesting dish composed of a gelatin-like substance (but firmer) that had tofu and shiso (a kind of herb) stuffed in it. Once you topped it with a bit of soy sauce, it was very tasty. We continued our fun evening with the karaoke machine that’s conveniently inside the lodge. Once we sung our hearts out and we got tired enough, we went to bed. Compared to our other mornings, when we had to be up pretty early, this was our easiest morning. We leisurely made our way to the cabin to be fed another great meal. We paid, said our thanks, gathered our stuff and hit the road again. The mountain seemed far less terrifying during the day and now that I knew  it had to end at some point. We headed out for Naruto to see the natural whirlpools but our timing was once again a problem. The peak time was not for another hour or so. We decided to leave and go up to Awaji where we could see the same whirlpools, around the peak time and better yet, be closer to home. I didn’t really know what to expect when we went out to see the whirlpools. Part of me was worried that I’d be disappointed and not see much, but even though they were small, there were definitely whirlpools! It was rather odd, as I’ve never seen them before.  Before we started our trek back up home, we hit another convenience store for some ice cream.

That’s when we had our very funny and cute encounter with about five or six boisterous elementary school boys. The first one to walk out of the car was Brian, who is a pretty big tall guy, so the kids went nuts. They kept exclaiming to each other, “Whoa, foreigners!” and saying “Hello!” to us. The five of us waved back, smiling and greeting them back. A couple of the kids came in the convenience store a while after us.  Brian and I were on our way out at the same time and one of the kids held the door for me! I said “Thank you!” and then all of them started screaming, “Thank you! Thank you!” to each other. Brian started to drink the Coke he just bought and this apparently blew their minds. “It’s really a foreigner!” one of the boys yelled while laughing. They started joking around and calling their friends foreigners. Once the rest of my group was out, we headed back to the car while saying, “Goodbye!” to the kids and they happily replied back. Little things like that make me love living in Japan so much.

Our return home was uneventful until we reached our semi-last destination (Wadayama) to do some car switching  and whatnot. We accidentally hit the car beside us with our door handle and they called the police. None of our Japanese was good enough for this conversation so we quickly called in a friend who is perfectly fluent in both languages. I’m pretty sure Japanese policemen have very little to do here. Because for the tiny scratch on the car, we had three police cars come in, complete with sirens and running to the scene. Things got settled and everyone apologized to each other. Alvin, Ashley, and I left Brian and Erica in Wadayama and we went up back to Toyooka.

Now, I had a fantastic weekend.  But the ever present lingering of something kept me close to tears many times. At 4:00 in the morning on Friday, I got a call from my mother. I already knew it was something bad if my mom was calling me. She told me that my grandfather passed away. I can’t really remember what we said after that. I know that I locked myself in the bathroom for who knows how long so I could cry. Out of all the things that worried me about living in Japan for a long time again, it wasn’t radiation and earthquakes, but losing people I love when I’m thousands of miles away. After I cried, I went back to sleep to wake up when everyone else did. I continued texting my mother occasionally. I kept this awful information to myself until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I desperately needed to be comforted; I couldn’t handle it on my own. When I had a moment alone with Erica, I just blurted it out. We hugged each other tightly and cried together.  She knew all too well what I was feeling as her grandfather passed away while she was in Japan too. It was brief, the moment we had, but it helped me enormously. I couldn’t be more grateful  that I could tell her that and she could be the friend I needed.

Once I got home from dropping off Alvin and Ashley at the train station, I headed home and got on Skype to talk to my family. Thank God for Skype.

Monday was nothing remarkable but Tuesday was the best day of the week for me. My mother and I arranged for me to talk to my grandmother on the phone while everyone was in Georgia for the funeral. My grandmother was in high spirits and it was so good to hear her voice. My grandfather had been in so much pain and sick before he died, he prayed that God would just take him home. And he did just that. My grandfather quietly died in his sleep on the way to a doctor’s appointment. I know my grandmother misses him, she’s had been married to him for 66 years, but she and the rest of us are relieved that he doesn’t have to suffer anymore. I had the chance to talk with other family members briefly and it lifted my spirits. From the love from my family and friends, I felt myself getting better. Not getting over his death, but being at peace with it. What I didn’t expect was who would complete my healing process.

Kindergartners.

First period at Naka Takeno, I had the little guys. There’s about eight of them. Some of them are the same kids I played with in the sand and helped catch bugs. I did a self-introduction in a combination of Japanese and English. I helped form a simple template for a self-introduction (“My name is ___. I like ___.”). Everybody got a sticker for introducing themselves. They really liked that. We played hide-and-seek and they asked me questions. During hide-and-seek, for almost every child that I found, I had one trying to hold my hand. With four kids hanging on to me at once, it was more like holding my fingers.  They showed me their pets – two turtles and some crawfish. Right before class ended, they gave me a performance of what they did at their sports festival. They sang and danced just for me. I couldn’t stop smiling.I had a waving and smiling crowd bidding me goodbye as I went on to the next class. I did musical chairs with the fifth graders and they really had fun with that!

The next class was with the third graders. As I promised the fourth graders, I wore my Pikachu shirt that day. The third grade teacher started asking the kids what other things are popular in America from Japan.  They mentioned Mario (since I wore my Mario shirt the week before). The teacher asked me if I knew about Dragon Ball. I said yes and demonstrated the classic “Kamehameha!” for the students and they all giggled. At that, the kids started scrambling around moving their desks and chairs. One of the students handed the teacher a CD and the teacher told me that they performed a dance to the song from the show. He started to play the song and the kids started dancing! So cute! I told the teacher that we had the same song but with English lyrics (which make me laugh, by the way). I told him I would print out the lyrics and bring them to school with me next time.Anyway, the kids were told to do it relatively quietly but that was pretty difficult. The teacher didn’t mind too much though. I felt so happy to have a personal performance again. Once they finished, we went into the heart of the lesson of the day – shapes! Triangles, rectangles, ovals, hearts, squares…you know, as I’m thinking about this, I should have used Lucky Charms instead of traffic signs. Next time.  I made the kids go around the room to find various shapes and say them to me. It went pretty well.

Eventually, we had lunch and recess. I got bombarded with tickling by two of the fourth grade boys again. We had to play in the gym because they were putting down winter grass…at least that’s what someone told me. We have this intern who must either be in college or just out of college, because he seems to be the same age or closer to my age than everyone else. We were all playing with hula hoops and somehow, it got to the point of me throwing hula hoops at him so he could try jumping through them. When I say throw by the way, it’s more like rolling them across the floor…at high speeds. Sometimes he’d make it, sometimes he’d start to go for it and then give up at the end, falling on his hands and knees. Hilarious! I’ve watched many a dog show in my life and it reminded me of one of those agility races.

The rest of the day composed of reading more of The Hunger Games  series (I’m reading The Mockingjay now!), teaching one more class (6^th graders), and then tagging along with the students while they practiced for a marathon they’re apparently participating in. While they were taking a loop around the blocked off neighborhood near the school, I was walking leisurely behind them when I came across a group of mothers sitting on the curb chatting with their babies. I heard some tiny voices calling out, “Talia-sensei!” and noticed that two of the kindergartners were playing on the swings nearby. They ran over to me and one of them sort of jumped me. I gently swung her side to side and she found this to be fun. I waved to the group of mothers watching us and they happily waved back. We went back to the swing set and they suggested we play a game. The game that one of the girls came up with was that she would call out a color. The point was for me and the other girl to touch something of that color before she tagged us. If she tagged us, we would be “it” (by the way, being “it” is called “being the oni” in Japanese.  Oni means ogre.). After I confirmed what the rules of the game were, we started. Of course, she targeted me. Before she would even call out a color, she was creeping towards me! Little cheater, hahaha. I very quickly became the oni and the girls found this hilarious. After we played this for a bit, we decided to play hide-and-seek again. As soon as we started, Kometani-sensei found me and told me that it was well after my time to go home. I told her I was in the middle of game and she laughed. When I found the girls, I told them I had to go home and that we’d play again. They were okay with that and we said goodbye.

It was then I realized that my heart felt okay again. I’ve always loved kindergartners and feel like I have the best time with them, but the way they completely embraced me just felt so good. They were like little angels sent my way to comfort me by just being themselves. Needless to say, but I cannot wait to teach the kindergartners again.

I’d have to say that Tuesday was my best day.  The rest of the week went well.  It’s currently Friday afternoon and very rainy. At the junior high school, my first graders are still a bit reluctant to talk and every class feels like they have to warm up to me all over again. The second graders are a little more willing to participate in comparison. Third graders don’t like to talk as much either, but when they do, I can tell they’re getting used to me and it’s not so awkward for me anymore. They’re all good kids.

This weekend will not be action and adventure packed. I plan on getting my life a bit in order – my apartment needs some attention.

Pictures from the fun weekend:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1994129412801.2104548.1230390045&l=6cd7422a2b&type=1

Shikoku and Whirlpools

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1993994729434.2104544.1230390045&l=f3cb7e6978&type=1

Naoshima

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And Grandpa, I will always love you. I am blessed that I had the privilege to have you in my life. Rest in peace.

My creative juices for a sweet title are presently absent.

As you can imagine, I love having Internet in my own home. Being able to Skype with family is great and I'm happy that I can chat with my friends in real time. What a treat! I’ve also caught up on all of True Blood (finally!). I decided to have a marathon of Modern Family  too – which I heard got a bunch of awards recently. It’s very quickly getting up there on my favorites list of television shows.

Anyway, besides relishing in the glory of the world wide web, I’ve been enjoying my classes. On Tuesday I was back at Naka Takeno. I wore my yellow Super Mario shirt which got a lot of nice comments from teachers and students alike. They were surprised I bought it in America, especially because it has Japanese written on it (I didn’t bother to remind them of the plethora of shirts with English written on them in Japan). They asked me whether I Pokémon clothes too and when I said yes, they told me to wear it next week. If this is how it’s going to go, I may just have to wear my Sonic shirt the week after that. Complete the chain of awesome.

That Tuesday I had the pleasure of meeting some kindergartners. Or preschoolers…I’m not entirely sure, but they were super cute. I was outside watching the fifth, fourth, and sixth graders practice for their sports festival when a few of the little guys came out to play with their teachers. One of teachers told a little girl to say “Konnichi wa” to me. She was very shy, hiding behind her teacher but she said it to me and I replied back. She openly told her teacher how embarrassed she was! A little boy was running around the playground watching me and I started to play with him. I swung in circles around a pole and pretended I was dizzy. This got a lot of laughs. I kept doing it and doing it until I honestly felt dizzy. Of course, he insisted that I keep going as he started copying what I was doing. I told him I couldn’t! We eventually moved on to the sand pit where we started making  a “cake.” The little girl didn’t seem so shy anymore and she was happy to play with us in the sand. Another little boy with a big net ran over to me and said, “Let’s go bug catching!” Now at first, I was thinking, “Oh God, I’ve seen your bugs here and I don’t think I can do this!” but I decided to persevere. The little girl that was so shy before grabbed the bottom of my shirt and tugged me along to the spot where we were going to go hunting.  Eventually she was holding my hand. So cute! What wasn’t cute were the freaky looking grasshoppers that we found. I managed to catch a few and happily gave them to my students. They thought I was awesome and thanked me profusely. Eventually, it was time to stop running around in the tall grass (hah!) and go back inside. We waved goodbye and I still can’t wait to play with them again.

Wednesday was another day at Morimoto with the third graders. Nothing eventful or inspiring occurred. I’m learning how to work smoothly with my JTE. He usually lets me know the lesson plan a day or an hour before class starts. There’s no rocket science behind the lesson plans, but I’m always so nervous. Why I’m nervous in front of a bunch of 14 and 15 year olds, I’m not quite sure. It’s slowly wearing off. I’m getting into the groove of how class works – the pace that I should read things aloud, how I should walk around and help students out when they work together or alone on something, stuff like that. It’s tempting to speak in Japanese to help explain things but I’m trying to only use English in the classroom. Since my JTE is there, I shouldn’t need to use Japanese anyway. It’s not as if the golden rule of ALTs is to only speak English to your students, even outside of class, so I’m working on getting to know them and getting them used to me, by mostly speaking in Japanese with English thrown in. Not to mention, it’s been incredibly helpful for me! I realize how broken my Japanese is sometimes because I’m thinking too fast and the words aren’t coming to me in the right language. But there’s communication.

I spent Thursday at Takeno Minami. I had my first class with the fifth graders and that was really fun. I’ve already got the one kid who knows the phrase, “Yes, we can!”  One of the kids in the fifth grade is the one I bonded with over dance practice. He still makes a point to say hi to me whenever he can.  In class, we had a great time playing games using the new grammar point of “Do you like -?” and “Yes, I do/No, I don’t.” The kids are energetic and happy to be there, so it’s easy to feed off that energy. The teacher is just as energetic and the kids love him, so class is easy.

Friday, I had my introductory class with the first graders at Morimoto. In class, they’re a pretty introverted bunch. I know that two of the girls in the class like me so far, but they don’t really show it. And that’s okay! I’ve only been teaching here for how long? Not long at all.

Saturday evening was spent at Joshin and Namaste. Joshin is a big electronics store where I bought my nice TV and now have bought my own PS3. There was a sale so I had to get one. My first game for it? Portal 2! My reasons were thus: I’ve played the game ad nauseum, so I don’t need to depend on my spotty Japanese to get me through the game. Also, simply, it’s a fun game. But I was very wrong about the Japanese part – they didn’t translate the game at all! Not even the subtitles. I feel a bit silly for buying two of the same game, but now my friends who I left my first copy with don’t have to give it up. The next game I’m waiting for is Sonic Generations – it comes out in November and I’m so ready. I’ve got my eye on a Wii as well. I’ve always wanted one and never had the money to buy one. There are too many games I want for that system, like you would not believe. Maybe next pay check…

After I treated myself to that hefty gift, I met a few friends at an Indian restaurant called Namaste. I suddenly had a deep craving for Indian curry that day and I was sufficiently happy when I finished my meal. I went with basic butter chicken masala and got it with cheese nan – best decision ever. I helped Joshua out by driving him back to Hidaka with his newly acquired TV that he bought from Joshin while I was getting my hands on a PS3.

Sunday was the most exciting day this week. Bright and early, I set out to go to Minami’s sports festival. I would have gone to Naka’s sports festival too (do the morning at Minami and do the afternoon at Naka, for example) but I was told twice I didn’t need to come to the sports festival at Naka, so I decided not to go. I can’t figure out whether this was my failure at cultural understanding or they really just didn’t want me to come. Since that happened with Naka, I asked the principal at Minami whether it was okay if I came to the sports festival. He heartily said it was definitely alright and told the staff that I was going to come. He said it in such a way that…I’m having trouble smoothly translating into English but essentially, the message was that it was a nice thing for me to do and everyone was thanking me. I felt strange for being thanked for something like this but oh well. Anyway, I get there on Sunday morning and the kids were surprised to see me. Some were very happy to see me. Many of the students from Morimoto came. It turns out that some of their siblings attend the school.  I’m sure they attended Minami when they were little too. When I was at the festival, I was a bit conflicted. I wanted to talk and spend time with them, but I knew it’d be awkward. I did walk up to a couple of them or they found me and stood around and we exchanged greetings but it never got much further than that unfortunately. Despite that, the festival was fun and full of laughs, which included a secret activity, that I was gently forced to participate in with other adults. It was a bizarre race that involved holding hands with the guy next to me, dressing up in a yukata (not properly just wearing it like a jacket), grabbing bread with only my teeth from a string hanging from a pole, popping on a balloon by sitting on it, shoving my face in a tub of flour to find a marshmallow (and eat it), and doing a mini scavenger hunt.  Our item was a giant white ball, which was easy to find since it was used in a previous activity. In the end, I wound up with flour all over my face (and chest…) and some free pastries.

 I helped what I could with cleaning up after the festival before I took off for home. I tried to relax and recuperate as much as I could before heading back out again. One of my new friends invited me to come to a live house to listen to her boyfriend’s band play. I do love me some rock music and I missed out the last time she invited me, so I made a point to go. I decided to tough it out and go by myself, following the instructions she gave in addition to what I found online. Since I am Talia the Master of Misdirection, I was a bit worried. But I gave myself plenty of time to get lost and head out. It turned out that the place was ridiculously easy to find and only took a few minutes to get there. All that worrying for nothing! I was a bit early and was waiting for my friend to arrive. In the mean time, I found a cat hiding underneath a car. Well, it wasn’t hard to find considering how loudly it was meowing. I pretended there weren’t people around and started meowing back at it for a bit. During my kitty conversation, my friend showed up, I left the cat alone, and we went inside. The place is called Jack in the Box and it's a cool looking little place. The first band was a punk rock band, which I’m not into at all, so I didn’t find them too interesting. They also talked a lot and since I couldn’t understand what they were saying, their act was even more boring. After what seemed like forever, the next band called The 180 came up and rocked my socks off. Their music was catchy and made me feel alive, much like the band before made me feel a bit dead inside. Following their performance was JoLT, the band my friend’s boyfriend is in. Now that was a show! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. They were so good and crazy. I was just so happy I got my dance on. Toyooka is a nice place and I love it but it’s not Shibuya where there’s entertainment wherever you go, including places to dance. A guy who I sort of know, who was there told me I was the best dancer. XD After some chatting and drinking (soft drinks, mind you), a couple of us went to karaoke. We met two other friends while we were there and had a fabulous time, as usual.  For the record, “GO!!!” by FLOW (yes, one of the Naruto theme songs) is an AWESOME group karaoke song. We were so fired up! I definite recommendation.

Monday was the holiday Respect for the Aged Day so we didn’t have school. This was when I had my Modern Family marathon. I attempted to clean my apartment. It was a very uneventful day.

Tuesday, I was back at Morimoto since Naka was spending the day off to make up for the sports festival. My JTE forgot about this, so he quickly explained the plan for the class with the first graders. Class went well. Next class was my introductory class with the second graders. They were a more lively bunch. Many of them positively responded to my brief segment about Harry Potter (the other grades didn’t seem to care). Following my self-introduction, I had the students write out a very basic self introduction about what they liked. I had to help many students spell “Harry Potter.” They gave their introductions with ease and we opened up the floor for questions. They weren’t feeling too curious so I suggested we play a quick game.  We played a modified hangman – modified in the sense that no one is getting hanged, but I drew a stick figure on the board with a face and I told the students that if they guessed a letter that didn’t belong, I would start erasing him bit by bit. I chose this modification because I read an article once about an ALT using hangman in the classroom without knowing that one of the students at the school had actually committed suicide (possibly by hanging, I can’t remember now) and the game left the other children feeling pretty distressed. To avoid that bag of worms completely, I used the example that one of the team teaching handbooks that my predecessor left for me. Anyway, I made the phrase an easy one (“I like Pokémon”) since we didn’t have a lot of time. They quickly figured it out and they enjoyed the game. Success!

Once that period was over, I was done for the day. During lunch time, I whipped out my Kindle to continue reading The Hunger Games (oh my goodness, why is it so good? Why is it so messed up? I love it). Takamatsu-sensei asked me what the Kindle was and as I explained that I could read books on it, I watched as her mind was being blown away. I let her hold it and showed her how it worked and she was just elated. Now she wants one too!

The rest of the school day went by uneventfully. Oh! Except that one of my students in the band found me and gave me a little Fullmetal Alchemist picture card. It was my present. Another student who was with her, the one going to Seattle for a week, asked me when I would come to school again. When I told her I would come the next day, all she gave me was a thumbs-up and the other girl said she’d bring her Fullmetal Alchemist DVD. Why are these kids so nice? After school, I went to listen to the band practice. I asked the teacher whether it’d be okay if I could sit and listen and he said it was perfectly fine. I brought a notepad and a pencil and drew to my heart’s content. When the girls first came in the room, they were happy to see me and raved about how nice my picture was. Due to the flooding thanks to another typhoon (by the way, we’re in the middle of a typhoon), they had to finish practicing early. Once they finished practicing, one of the girls told me to come tomorrow too. I happily agreed and headed home.

This morning I woke up to the sound of rain and wind. The typhoon must be right over the area now. To add to my reluctance to get out of bed, the weather has gotten a bit colder. I dragged myself out anyway and started working on putting together the last touches to the lesson plans my JTE already made. In the midst of this, my JTE called me to tell me that school was cancelled…but I still had to come into work. He laughed and apologized. I knew that this was protocol so I wasn’t surprised. I sort of hoped for a “Please don’t come in” message (because who doesn't like a due-to-inclement-weather-cancellation-day?) but this was fine too. It certainly lifted the pressure of making sure my contribution to the lesson plan was okay. So now, I’m at school, watching the never ending rain pour and pour outside. I’ve gotten the chance to wear my cute rain boots and two of my teachers have commented on how cool they are J. One of the teachers said I always looked so fashionable. I’ve never been told that before! XD

All this rain makes me sleepy though and makes me want to drink hot cocoa. Lucky me, there’s hot cocoa in the teacher’s office but I can’t very well take a nap. It’s all good though.

This whole JET Program thing was a good idea

Morimoto has been wrapped up in practicing for their sports festival so they only have two periods of class and the rest of the day is devoted to preparation. It’s been quite a thing to watch, especially their…gymnastics? Not sure what to call it actually. I was Skyping with my parents the other night, trying to explain it to them to no avail. Only pictures will do. Sometimes I’m sitting there watching and thinking, “Are you kidding me? You’re really making them do that?” Some of them look so hard! But it’s great when they manage to do it. Anyway, now that school has started, I will be at Naka Takeno on Tuesdays, Takeno Minami on Thursdays, and then Morimoto the rest of the weekdays. On Monday there was no English class so no work for me.  Tuesday was my first day working at Naka Takeno.  Naturally, I had to do another self-introduction.  Once I finished addressing the entire school  (less than 40 students), I watched them practice for their sports festival for a while. When they finished that, it was soon time for my first class with the first graders. One of them came into the staff room to fetch me. So cute!

My first class went like this:  I made a picture board with photos of my family, our house, where Maryland is in the States, some monuments from D.C., my pets (Plecky and Axel), and my hobbies (drawing and playing Sonic. By the way, the amount of times the kids, of all ages, were whispering, “Sonic! Sonic!” and pointing it out to each other during my introduction was hilarious.) I also brought some American dollars and coins with me to show them how it was different from Japanese money. I wanted to learn about the kids too and wanted them to practice giving a self-introduction, so I had them write down their name, what thing they like, and what they’re good at doing.  One by one they did a little presentation. Afterwards, they were free to ask any questions about me. They ranged from – what is your favorite Japanese food (katsudon is my standard answer), where do you live, do you like Takeno (yes!), how old is your grandmother, how old are you, etc. After that class was the combined 2^nd and 3^rd graders. I did the same thing with them but oh, how they loved the American money! Explaining the rough conversion was even funnier (I decided to just ignore the economy and go with a basic  1 dollar is about 100 yen conversion because they’re children and I hate math, so this was easier for everyone’s brains. And plus, if you round up, that’s almost correct, right? Right.). I made them do the same sort of self-introductions too. Their reward for introducing themselves was a University of Maryland sticker. I did this with all of the kids.

Before the next class, we had a short recess – yay! One of the fourth graders showed me the bunnies they have outside in a pen. I noticed – to my slight horror – that there was an absurd amount of dragonflies in the air. I have never, ever, seen so many dragonflies at one time. Of course, the kids were eagerly running around with nets, trying their hardest to catch them. One of my first graders who said he was good at catching bugs during class lived up to his word and had many dragonflies in a little planetarium alongside a massive grasshopper. I’m glad they didn’t take it out to show me. I probably would have screamed. Break was over and it was now on to the fourth grade. Same process of self-introduction, showing off American money and laughing at their reactions, and then it was question time. I can’t remember all their questions and I can’t even say I understood all their questions. When their curiosity seemed to be running out, I decided a game would best to pass the time instead of us looking at each other awkwardly. I thought of doing I Spy with the idea of looking at a specific thing but it soon turned into something else probably much easier for the kids to handle. I said I saw something pink and everyone ran around the room saying they found something pink. Realizing that’s how they thought the game was played, I decided to stick with that. I called out different colors and they dashed around the room to find things that matched what I said. It was funny when I got to brown because some of them started touching my arm and saying, “Brown, brown!” Then all of them were up at the front, touching my hands and arms. When they were looking for blue things, I noticed one of the boys had a blue Pokémon shirt and told him I liked Pokémon too. This got the greatest surprise. “You have Pokémon in America? You know it? Can you do wireless with foreign countries?” they all asked at once. I said I had Pokémon White (one of the newest games) and they all got very excited. We started discussing their names (how some are different and how some are kept the same from Japanese) and what level Pokémon we had, if I have seen the newest movie (not yet) and whatnot. I then started drawing one (Mew) without telling them what it was so they could guess. I wrote it in English for them so I could at least appear like I was still doing my job.  It’s hard trying to do the “only speak in English” approach because unlike the junior high school kids who are learning it academically, everyone else is just getting early exposure. Only fifth and sixth grade have textbooks in the elementary schools. Anyway, even though I wasn’t exactly teaching much at the time, I felt like at least they were  getting comfortable with me. Next time I see them, they won’t be as shy because they know I’m a cool person in their eyes XD.  After that class was lunch time.

Now, let me tell you about school lunch if I haven’t already. I usually don’t remember to read the menu until it’s too late and it’s already lunch time, so I’m bit anxious whenever lunch time comes around. I was told that if I don’t have any major aversion to Japanese food, I should get school lunch. Because it’s cheap and delicious, so I was told. Well, yes, it’s pretty cheap and sometimes quite tasty. So far, I’ve only had to struggle a great deal once. Other times it may be the texture makes me feel weird so I don’t enjoy eating at as much but it doesn’t taste bad. And there are days like one Monday when I’m looking at three skinny small fish (with heads) on my plate. I’m thinking, “I eat fish. Not the head really, but I can do fish. Come at me, school lunch.” Then I opened the fish to find nothing but eggs. I do not really fancy fish eggs. There wasn’t really any meat. Just eggs.  I ate them the best I could, paired with rice to nullify the somewhat bitter flavor. By the time I’m on my third one, picking out the eggs to eat, my vice principal is commenting on my eating. I don’t actually know what he’s saying, but he’s imitating my motion of tearing the fish apart. Tamura-sensei then kindly told me that I was supposed to eat the fish whole.

Oh. Is that so?

He kind of laughed, mentioning how it must be a bit scary to eat the head and I laughed too because I wasn’t sure what else to do. Then my inner turmoil began: “I can’t really eat the whole thing. But maybe if I eat enough of the body, they’ll forgive me. Why is this so bitter? I have to eat it. Do I have to eat it? Can I pull my G-smash card on this one? I don’t want to eat the vertebrae…can I even eat it? He said everything...” In the end, I left nothing but the heads and vertebrae. Also, the pickles and pickled bean sprout combination just made me feel worse. I felt bad for having to throw away any of it but I didn’t want to throw up either. *Sigh*

Despite this, school lunch, as I said can be delicious! I ate lunch with the sixth graders The three schools I teach at have the same school lunch, for the record. Going back to my first day at Naka Takeno, we had lunch and then another recess. I ended up with the fourth graders again – who decided to discover whether I was ticklish or not. Curses.  I had to run away into the staff room where they couldn’t get me. Gotta love the safe zones. One of the girls pretended she lassoed me and started reeling me in. I started to struggle but I let myself be “dragged out” of the staff room, much to their delight. I heard a couple of them giggling, saying that I was funny. One of the boys found a humongous dragonfly and decided to present it to me. While I genuinely thought it was awesome, I didn’t want to touch it or be too close to it! I went outside with the fourth graders and we found a kitten! That was fun.

Then it was class with the fifth graders. It’s a very small class (five students) and they’re all pretty shy. Kometani-sensei, who teaches English with me, and I got through the class with ease and the kids seemed to have had a good time. Next was sixth grade, who were a much more lively bunch. One of them has mastered, “Oh my God!” which kind of makes me laugh because I want to know where he learned that (probably a movie or TV show, I imagine).  Today, one of my sixth graders said, “no idea.” I like these guys. Once I was done with all my classes, I retreated back to the staff room and handed out more omiyage. They were very happy with what I brought for them  (more key chains).

Alright, so that was Tuesday. 

Wednesday was my first class with the third grade junior high students. For them and the rest of the junior high, I created a Power Point with pictures of America and things related to me. In one of my pictures was of a paper bag I brought back from Wicked and the JTE mentioned they had seen it! Awesome sauce. At the end of my presentation, I wanted them to interview each other and then present their partner to me. It went alright. They weren’t all to enthusiastic. I can’t blame them. The rest of the day was devoted to Sports Festival practice. When the day ended, Takamatsu-sensei took me to see one of the third grade girls who wanted to talk to me. So, together we went to the band room where she was with her friends. The girl then showed me her collection of Fullmetal Alchemist collection cards! Due to my enthusiasm for that series, I was very much excited and loved that she showed them to me.  The girls asked me to draw a character so I decided to go with Edward,  one of the main characters.  The girls loved it, asked me to sign it, squealed when I did and they put it up on the whiteboard. One of the girls loved Wicked so much that she bought the soundtrack. She told me that she would let me borrow it. She was ready to let me borrow it the next day but I told her I wouldn’t be at Morimoto on Thursday so she said she’d bring it on Friday! *squee*

The next day at Takeno Minami was a good one. There was another opening ceremony for me and I did another self-introduction.  I then met the student who was the head of the student body and he read me a message in English. I then received a tissue paper flower lei by another student. So cute!  After the ceremony, it was time for them to practice for their sports festival! Now this time, I was really able to get into it. They were doing Soran Bushi – exactly the same song and almost the exact same dance that UMD’s Japanese American Student Association has performed several times. I readily agreed to practice with the kids – which left me exhausted and pain in my legs for days but totally worth it. I sort of bonded with the kid next to me and after we danced together, every time he saw me, he’d say something to me. I only taught sixth grade that day and that went without a hitch. At one point, some of the kids were practicing Soran Bushi again and a group of kids found me and urged me to come to the gym to practice again with them. My legs weren’t so willing but I knew I couldn’t say no to those little guys! I did it with a little less effort but it was just enough to keep my students happy. I ate lunch with the first graders who were more interested in looking at me than talking to me sometimes. They asked me how old I was and when I said I was 22, they said I was really young. One of them said his mom was really young too; I asked him how old his mom was and he admitted that he didn’t know. So funny.  The same kid pointed out that I was dark and told him I was born this way (I decided it would be much easier to say this then try to explain – which I can’t – that I was a bit lighter as a child but I got more brown as I grew up). He looked at himself and told me he was born the way he was too.

Friday was ALL-DAY SPORTS FESTIVAL PRACTICE at Morimoto. The only way I was really participating was by playing the drum during the opening ceremony (which was to a song from the movie Kiki’s Delivery Service) and to join in the folk dance (to the song “Turkey in the Straw” – which, by the way, I never knew the name for it. I only remembered the tune from Animaniacs when Wakko sang all of the US states and their capitals…). After school, I joined the girls in the band to A) practice the opening song and B) to enjoy listening to the Wicked soundtrack in Japanese! On Wednesday, I told the girl with the Wicked soundtrack that I liked the song “Defying Gravity” and so on Friday, she played the song for me. And she printed out the English lyrics so we could sing along. Can I just tell you I was on Cloud Nine? So ecstatic! She had a cute voice too! If you do not know me very well, I love singing with my life. Many of my happiest moments are with my friends and/or family singing together. So, to have this moment with one of my students just made my day. I felt like I was slowly getting past the “new teacher barrier” into a more friendly zone. Afterwards, she let me borrow the CD and I told her I would bring it back the next day (since we had more sports festival practice).  She insisted I keep it longer than that.

Saturday was practice from 9 to 12. A lot of running around setting up the school grounds for Sunday, the actual day of the festival. I spent more time with the girls from the band (ranking up my social links). I also discovered that one of the girls likes VOCALOIDs which is splendid, because I love VOCALOIDs. (I suggest you Google it for a more complete, comprehensible explanation but I’ll give a short shot:  A VOCALOID is a human sampled voice synthesized with a computer. It is then represented by a character such as Hatsune Miku or Kagamine Rin and they have surprisingly good music. There have been concerts. Naturally, this is a Japanese product. Yeah, I love this country, by the way.)  Once practice ended, I received more loot! One of the second grade girls let me borrow the complete set of the opening and ending theme songs of Fullmetal Alchemist. Oh snap! And it came complete with pictures of the singles and a DVD of all the animation sequences. It’s all so nice and pretty, I sort of want to buy it myself. But for now, I will enjoy it and give it back to her soon.

Sunday was the day we’ve all been waiting for! Starting at 9:00, I played the drum with the band and the kids marched. I introduced myself to the children’s families, the PTA, and anyone else who came for the sports festival. And then we just enjoyed ourselves watching the kids run around, sometimes with their parents, playing games and whatnot. It ended around 3:30 or so. I got home with just enough time to relax for a bit before sprucing myself back up for the enkai. An enkai is essentially a party and in this case, for employees to relax and unwind after a big event. Lucky me, the izekaya that we went to was on my street, so I only had to walk 15 minutes to get there. The evening was spent eating delicious Japanese food and enjoying the company of my co-workers, which included English pronunciation practice with Takamatsu-sensei and the principal teaching me an assortment of unusual but relatively useful Japanese phrases you wouldn’t find in a dictionary. The running joke soon became that I was expected to eat everything because it couldn’t go to waste! I told them I was saving myself for dessert and then they started talking about how there was always room for dessert, since there are different compartments in your stomach, you know. Compartments for main food and then a separate one for desserts – I’ve also heard that tea was another space from someone else. (Pam, was that you?)

So, instead of being able to sleep in on my compensated weekend day (since sports festival ate up our weekend, we were given Monday and Tuesday off from school), I had to rise and shine for the Internet installers to come! Oh, the glee I experienced! They installed it in less than an hour and then I was on the Internet…all day. So many shows to watch, so many people to talk to, so much email to read (Gmail is blocked on the city server…for some reason). I finally broke out of the apartment to enjoy some more Sushiro. Thank you Japan, for serving sushi on a conveyor belt for about 100 yen a plate, you have made me so happy. 

P.S.

Wow! How have I forgotten about this before? PICTURES!

Arrival into Japan and an Assortment of Activities and Sights:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1871957398577.2099541.1230390045&l=fcaa82d6bf&type=1

Random Good Times and Sights:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1912577214047.2101449.1230390045&l=b1fcd8ac45&type=1

Morimoto Sports Festival:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1958632445399.2103345.1230390045&l=7da488846a&type=1

'Sup September?

September 1^st, 2011

Today is the first day of school. And it’s grossly hot again. And we’re playing the “No AC until the early afternoon game” game again this morning. Every time someone walks by is like a gift. A breeze from outside is a blessing. Otherwise, I fan myself for a bit to make me feel better and then have to stop because I haven’t figured out how to fan myself and type efficiently at the same time. I don’t understand how these people are drinking hot things. I’ll be diving into the communal tea very soon.

This morning, I handed out my omiyage. I gave the gift for the principal first, pulling out a phrase straight from my Japanese textbook for such occasions (“Tsumaranai mono desu ga…” which literally means, “This is a boring thing…”). He was impressed. I heard the infamous phrase to all people studying Japanese, “Nihongo ga jouzu desu ne!” (“Your Japanese is so good!”) but the way he said it made me smile. Everyone who opened their little packages with Maryland or D.C. related key chains were pleasantly surprised. Success! But let me take a moment to talk about “Nihongo ga jouzu desu ne!” This phrase is only infamous because very often, it doesn't seem sincere but rather, just a nice thing to say. There have been occasions where all I have said was “Thank you” and I receive that response (to their credit, they may have been talking about my pronunciation, not my “proficiency”). I read another ALT’s thoughts on the phrase, how often it is said by Japanese people and the ALT had another way of looking at it. In cases where not much is said, but much praise is given, it’s more like a “Wow, you’re trying and that’s awesome!” I think that’s what they said. I’m trying to find that article again and can’t find it. :/

Anyway, we just finished our opening ceremony. Now, I knew I’d have to do a self-introduction for everyone (again), but this time in front of the kids too. I knew this was happening for a couple weeks or so now. What amuses me is that today, about an hour before the ceremony, one of my co-workers informs me that I would have to do this. I wonder if this was a reminder or telling me like it was the first time I was hearing it. Either way, I had something memorized that neatly summarized my life, my hometown, my happiness to be in Japan again, and some nice remarks about working together.  The opening ceremony was held inside the gym, which looks really shiny and nice.  I saw all of my 44 students. Yup, 44 in the whole school. They sang the school song and several opening words were said. One of the students fainted. Some of my co-workers very discreetly and quickly got him on a stretcher and led him out of the gym. I hope he’ll be alright (I asked Ota-sensei later about it and the kid is fine.) I can’t tell whether my co-workers seemingly lack of surprise had to do with the fact that they were hiding it or this happens a lot. Maybe both? Anyway, the ceremony continued and I went on stage to introduce myself. I looked for a face that didn’t look so serious but I had no luck. Maybe they were too bored. Whatever, I went through my introduction without too much stalling and when I got back to Takamatsu-sensei, she told me I did beyond well.

The ceremony ended shortly after and then Takamatsu-sensei told me something interesting. Apparently, the children wear bells because there are bears up here. Bears!  We also have monkeys and wild boars. Well, that’s a surprise! But not really, considering where I am, but I never thought about it. I’m glad that somebody told me!  I told her that I wanted to see them and she insisted that she didn’t want to see them at all. I offered that I’d like to see them from faraway and she laughed. I think she said that’d be acceptable.

Now I’m back in the staff room where it’s impossibly muggy. And there’s not much communal tea left so I didn’t take any. Not to mention, I didn’t do my usual Family Mart run because I couldn’t remember exactly when the ceremony started (because I’m super smart and forgot to check before I left work the day before) so I wanted to get to school early. In case I haven’t informed you of this, I’ve been to Family Mart every day to grab something for lunch as I have been too tired to cook the night before so I could have food for lunch. Also, there’s no microwave at school so I have to think of food I wouldn’t mind eating at a lukewarm temperature. So, this last week I was the onigiri queen. Two salmon, one tuna mayo, and a drink of some sort like milk tea, Sokenbicha (not really sure what kind of tea it is, but I think it’s oddly delicious), juice, or water. Now, not only did I like the onigiri they sold at Family Mart better because they had soft nori (dried seaweed) but they have a section of Fullmetal Alchemist merchandise. First, there were the folders – which I have put to good use. Then there are little big-headed figurines and small drink glasses. So far, I have two figurines and one glass. It’s fun to collect this stuff and decorate my apartment.

Speaking of decorating, I wish I had a sense of direction. As much as I’d like to say that I’m artistic, I have no idea what I’m doing with my place.

In other unrelated news, I’m looking at this piece of paper that was given to me called the Lifestyle Check Sheet. From September 5^th to the 11^th, I have to document how long I’ve slept, when I woke up, what I ate or if I ate breakfast, when I have a bowel movement (morning or night are my only options), how long I watch TV, how long I play games and how long I take getting ready for the next day. I’m not entirely sure why they need to know all of this but I have to comply. I think I have to write down my goals as well.

September 2nd, 2011

Second day of school and all the kids are taking their subject tests. It was funny as I walked in, Tamura-sensei (the math and art teacher) asked one of the boys whether he studied and the boy said “Not really.” Hah! Such a typical response, right? I know that kids are basically the same all around the world but it amuses me when I see it highlighted in such an interaction.

Speaking of highlight, my highlight of the day may have already occurred. Takamatsu-sensei (who is the the Japanese teacher, if I haven’t mentioned that before) was going over some notebooks with kids’ writing assignments.  She got my attention to show me the entry of a first grader (junior high school has three grades, by the way. Sort of America’s equivalent to 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade). One of the girls wrote that she wanted to become friends with me. I beamed. In the midst of all of those seemingly bored faces yesterday, one of my students already wants to be my friend. I almost squealed with happiness. That’s so cute. I hope we can be good friends. Another girl mentioned that since my self-introduction was in Japanese, it was easy to understand and she was happy about that. Yay! XD I'm glad it was comprehensible (don't worry, I didn't just wing it, I had Ota-sensei check it for me!)

And by the way, I thought I was safe from crazy weather in America, but we have a typhoon coming straight at us this weekend. >.>; Its name is Typhoon #12 (typhoons don't get nice names like Irene and Isabel...). There was one that already hit Tokyo and it's pretty flooded up there, as I've seen on TV. My plans for the weekend? Buy food this evening, curl up in my futon, and continue reading Pride and Prejudice with Zombies (is it bad that I've watched Bride and Prejudice and now reading what I just mentioned, but have never even read the real thing/watched the TV series/watched the movie?). If it is, I don't care. Because it's hilarious reading about these five girls try to find suitable lovers and in the mean time, fight with zombies. Classic.