My Musings Today

You know what I dislike the most about Japanese schools, in terms of physical structure? Surprisingly, it’s not the lack of central heating. In fact, on many days, I feel like I’m burning up. The staff rooms are usually quite warm, sometimes unbearable. Only the hallways are cold and it’s not like you’re teaching in the hallway. The doors to classrooms are closed and they keep in all the heat. I totally support central heating but right now, it's not killing me yet.

What bothers me is that there are absolutely no water fountains! I see my fellow co-workers drinking endless amounts of tea and coffee and my students drink from their water bottles…but this isn’t quite doing it for me. If I remember to bring water with me (which I usually don't, because I'm great like that) and since it’s so hot inside the staff room, I hardly want to drink something that will increase my own body temperature.

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Here's a fun thing that happened today:

Two of my sixth grade girls touched my hair and FREAKED OUT. I washed it without blow drying and flat ironing it straight, so I’m rocking the cocker spaniel look. They screamed excitedly and said things like, “It feels so nice!” One of them took me by the hand so they could find their homeroom teacher, urge her to touch my hair and then I stood there laughing as they all touched my hair. I love stuff like this.

SUPER HISASHIBURI DESU

(It’s been a super long time)

I’m terribly sorry for the nearly two month absence.  To make up for it, I have fun stories!

So, Tuesday was my birthday! I’m 23 now! Woohoo! A couple weeks before, the 3^rd grade teacher at Naka Takeno asked me when my birthday was and when I told him the date, he was pleased to know it was going to be on a Tuesday. I was too! I always have such a good time at Naka Takeno so I thought it was great I’d have my birthday there!

But first: Pictures from everything because writing it is exhausting lol

Tajima Halloween Party

Random Japanland Adventures

Adventures in Kobe

Wow, so, hello…it’s been a while. It’s November December now (when I started writing this, it was still November...)! And boy, is it getting colder! Not cold enough for me to figure out how to make the plug-in heater work in my room but cold enough to make me turn on the heat in the living room for a bit (It's gotten cold enough actually). I don’t keep it on for too long we’re trying to save on energy here in Japan but also, it gets really hot to the point of stifling quickly.

What have I done since I’ve last written? Quite a bit actually.

Bring Out the Bear Bells!

This afternoon, the staff room was ringing with the sound of bells and the cacophony of everyone talking at once. The talking I can usually block out but the bells were a new element. I looked around trying to figure out what was going on.

The principal caught the lost look on my face and started laughing. In between chuckles he said, “Someone please explain them to Talia-sensei!” The English teacher laughed and told me, “It’s Christmas!” 

I started giggling and responded sarcastically with, “Really?” More laughter erupted. I guess they didn’t catch my tone(/Japanese sometimes doesn’t do sarcasm). My other co-worker said, “Jingle bells!” and then the two of us briefly broke into song. After that he just said, “No,” in English (hilarious at that moment, by the way) and continued to explain in Japanese that they were bells to scare away bears. Or at least, let the bear know you’re coming  - I’m pretty sure you don’t want to surprise a bear.

My thoughts? Oh boy! The bear bells! I remember one of my co-workers told me about the bears in the area when school started. I believe there was a sighting near my school last night.

Anyway, the co-worker that kindly informed me what the bells were for was looking through the box of them and noted that there were two extras. The principal, looked at me feigning seriousness, said, “Give them to Talia-sensei,” and burst out laughing again.

My principal is super cool.

Festivals and Pocket Monster

Two weekends ago, I had my first mikoshi-carrying festival experience. I did not carry the mikoshi myself but it was the first time I’ve seen it toted around. A mikoshi is a portable shrine that is carried by men (women aren’t really supposed to do it) around the town/city during certain festivals. Supposedly, spirits live inside it. This one in particular is called the Danjiri Festival. The danjiri are the large wooden structures that men also carry with the sole purpose of ramming them into each other  or pretending to do so. Instead of a shrine on top of the wooden structure, there are people perched up in it playing the drums.

Danjiri Festivals <- Pictures

On Saturday night, I was in Kinosaki with several of my friends and watched people run around with the mikoshi and the danjiri. They’re all very nicely decorated. I ran into one of my co-workers from an elementary school – that took me off guard. You know how you see a person in the same setting all the time and you’re never ready to see them anywhere else? It was like that. We also ran into a pair of tiny junior high school girls who liked talking with us. It turns out that their ALT is my friend Alvin, so when my other ALT friends and I told them that, they were so shocked! Yes, us ALTs have a pretty tight circle – I think that’s one of the best benefits of the JET Program, having a network of people like that.

After we trailed after the people with the danjiri, we headed back to Toyooka for another ALT get-together.

Sunday morning I woke up to the sounds of drums banging in my neighborhood. Now, I knew that a mikoshi would be going around near me because one of the teachers at Takeno Minami told me about it. I quickly showered, got dressed, and dashed out the door to find it. And after a short search, I found a troop of elementary school aged children carrying a small mikoshi. My co-worker who told me about this happening said she’d be with the children. Unfortunately, I didn’t see her. I started hoping that some of the many children would be my students – that was not the case. Since I was unrecognizable to anyone and only appeared as a random foreign lady watching their kids parade around town, I took a quick picture and went back home. I felt a bit awkward.

I hitched a ride with Chi and her sister to go up to Izushi to watch that Danjiri Festival. This one was famous for fighting, and not just the slamming of danjiri together, but actual fist fights. How exciting! We got there early though so we could explore for a bit. We visited Izushi Castle and ate delicious soba, which Izushi is famous for, by the way. Before all of that, we met an old lady selling adzuki manju (little pastries full of red bean paste) and handing out samples. She happily gave us some to try and they were warm and tasty. She gave us a little card advertising a nearby soba restaurant. We told her we would go to it and then went on our way. After Izushi Castle, we came back to her to ask her where the restaurant she suggested was. Instead of just telling us, she took me and Chi’s sister by the hand and walked us there. Just left her shop to take us! She was even singing a little song and once we were in the restaurant, she jovially said, “The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!” I couldn’t stop giggling at the sight I’m sure we were. Anyway, the soba was just as good as I hoped.

Once we ate our fill of soba, we ventured off to find the black team. In Izushi, for the danjiri smashing event, there are several teams composed of the people in certain neighborhoods in Izushi. Apparently, Chi managed to get herself on the black team one time, so we went to them, hoping that at least a few people would remember her. Also, if we were with the team and got to wear the happi (short coats often worn during festivals), we’d get closer to the action. Luckily, some of them did remember Chi and many of them were friendly to us anyway, so we stuck with them. Also, another ALT that we knew was on the team, so that helped us solidify our reason for hanging around like groupies. Only drawback was that they did not have any extra happi, so none of us could wear one – not to mention, we weren’t allowed to touch the danjiri. Women are bad luck, you see. To further imprint this idea, the black team at one point had won three years in a row – the year that Chi was on their team, they got in a tie. The coincidence was too strong to let that go. Oops.

Regardless, we had good times talking with some people, talking amongst ourselves while we followed them, etc. The actual danjiri smashing started a little slow at first and then began to get very interesting. Not a lot fighting this year since the police force definitely had a presence there. I don’t actually know the reason behind the danjiri smashing but it’s exciting and cultural, so that makes it cool! I later found out that my principal of the junior high school was on the red team. Too bad for him though because they lost to the black team!

When that finished up, we had some more soba and visited an ALT and her boyfriend that lived in the area. We had a riveting conversation about politics in America, education, our living situations, our students, and everything in between it seemed. It had been a long time since I’ve had such an in-depth discussion, so it was quite refreshing. We eventually had to leave them though because we promised to meet at Namaste, Toyooka’s Indian restaurant. Even though we sort of just ate, we couldn’t possibly say no to Namaste.

We ate our fill and then Chi brought me home where once I again, I completely passed out immediately. I really ought to get some rest on these weekends. Weekends are simply not long enough, that’s the problem. I need to have time to explore and have fun while I still can and yet, be able to reenergize. Oh well, if wishes were fishes… (what is the rest of that idiom anyway?)

The week went by as usual but with a few highlights. Elementary school visits are always fun. Since I had no classes in the morning, during one period, the third grade teacher at Naka Takeno invited me to come outside with his students and dig up the sweet potatoes they’ve been growing. I kid you not, I was bit by a mosquito within the first five minutes of helping the kids. It’s all good though. The third graders were happy to have me help them and I must say, I don’t think I’ve ever done it before. One of the students taught me what to do. At Takeno Minami, fifth period was devoted to cleaning up around the town. I was assigned to work with the 6^th graders, so we walked a ways down the street to a mini rest stop of sorts to pick up trash. So many cigarettes! Since coming to Japan, my aversion to smoking has increased by 10 fold – I think it’s because people smoke a lot here and I never liked smoking in the first place. After we had come back and the students finished up their last period of class, we had some time to stay outside and play. This is when I had the pleasure of watching a bunch of kids riding unicycles. I guess in America, it’s rare for someone to be able to ride a unicycle, but here it’s totally normal! Or at least, at this school. They have a bunch of unicycles outside actually for you to ride on if you want – well, for the kids anyway.

Junior high school has been prepping up for their culture festival this weekend. At the end of the day, they always practice their chorus song. I like to come upstairs and listen to them sing. They sound beautiful! Also, there are two songs I have to learn by this weekend that I will be singing with the staff and the PTA. The fact that the song is in Japanese doesn’t worry me nearly as much as remembering the harmony. I haven’t sung in a choir in years! Hopefully, it will be like riding a bike.

This last weekend I went to Osaka! With some train ride/time coordination, I managed to meet my friends Kyle and Johnny on the train on the way down. We had a few places in mind to get to when we got there: The Pokémon Center, the Apple Store, and Shakey’s. Pokémon Center to feed into my 12 year obsession and the Apple Store to figure out what was wrong with Kyle’s Mac computer. Shakey’s is a California-based pizza/pasta buffet – I thought it was Japanese until Kyle told me otherwise. While the three of us rode the train in an energy deprived state, we decided that Starbucks needed to be added to the itinerary. We got to Osaka station and we went to this big building that I’m not sure whether you call it a department store but it had everything, including that much needed Starbucks. We got our delicious overpriced drinks and walked around the Disney Store, where I ooh’ed and aah’ed over everything. We headed over to the Pokémon Center which was obviously full of children and their parents. The three of us really stood out more than usual. I managed to not spend all my money there, content with a custom made Pokémon coin (with the new Black and White starters on it) and a hat – Ash Ketchum’s hat. I’m not a baseball cap sort of person, but often there are times when I’m expected to wear a hat when we go outside for sports or outdoor functions. Now, I have a cool hat. Now, I will probably be laughed at by my students/co-workers but I don’t care too much.

We had to wrap up things up and make our way to the Apple Store since Kyle had an appointment. Once Kyle was situated in line to get help, Johnny and I started doing what one does in an Apple Store – play with technology. We tested out iPhone/iPod speakers and took pictures of ourselves with Photo Booth on the iPad, which was entirely way too funny. Everyone else in the store actually seemed to have a serious reason for being there – I know we must have looked very silly. Kyle’s computer was successfully fixed, we met with some ALTs and headed off to Shakey’s to eat ourselves to oblivion. In the end, Kyle stayed out with the others while Johnny and I went back to Kyle’s place in Sasayama to crash for the night. The next morning, we picked up Kyle from the station and brought him back to his own place where he could catch up on sleep. At first, I thought I was ready to tackle the world and whatnot, so I played on Kyle’s Wii (Sonic and the Secret Rings!!!) for a while – until I got hit with fatigue just went back to sleep.

After the power nap, Johnny dropped me off at the train station so I could go back up to Toyooka. The ride back was uneventful as I was asleep for it. Back at home, I worked on my Halloween lesson plan and watched the movie 2012. It was fascinating to watch! I certainly don’t like watching the world fall apart in real life, but I absolutely love it in movies. I was cutting out pictures but when things started getting really crazy, I had to put the scissors down. I think I’ll have to watch it again.

Just a Snippet

There's nothing quite like coming to one of your elementary schools and finding a box of weird looking fruit on your desk. In Japanese, they're called akebi. In scientific terms, it's called akebia quinata. To me, they might as well be called fat-and-gray-speckled-grub-looking-fruit. The teacher next to me told me to try some. I just kept looking at them, trying to determine if I could see them as a little less unappealing. I proved unsuccessful.

She asked me whether I thought they looked gross - I guess she could see it on my face. I countered her question by saying I had merely never seen them before. I asked her what kind of flavor they had and she said they were sweet. And for my information, I wasn't supposed to eat the seeds - just spit them out.


In the end, I never got around to eating the things.


Has anyone eaten these before? Can anyone tell me whether I missed the chance to gorge on deliciousness or whether I saved myself from disaster?

Whirlwind Weekend

And suddenly, it has dropped to 50 in the morning, maybe going up to 65 in the afternoon, and then back down to 50 in the evening. It’s not that I’m not used to cold, I’m just not used to cold yet. Instead of smooth transition to cooler weather, it just took a plunge. Fortunately, I haven’t gotten sick like I usually do whenever the temperature changes drastically.

This past week, I had my first bad class. Well, maybe bad isn’t the right word, but I didn’t feel like anything successful just happened. I mean, it was bound to happen. I don’t think there’s ever been a teacher that had a lesson plan go smoothly every single time. I guess I’m having a hard time of figuring out how long it takes to do certain activities still. Either the kids take a painstakingly long time to do it or they complete it in five seconds. I’ve decided to always just try planning more stuff than I need because I’d rather not be able to complete an activity because I ran out of time than desperately coming up with a back-up plan to fill in the last 10 minutes.

I did a scavenger hunt with the 2^nd graders at the junior high school. I got the idea from one of the activity books (called “Team Taught Pizza” – it’s a weird name, but it’s a super convenient book) that other JETs came up with; it’s a great resource. It has saved me a lot of time thinking of stuff from scratch for games and activities. Anyway, I put various hints of places to go in different rooms like the art room, the computer room, and the music room. They would find a hint that would say something like, “Where do you go to read many books?” and they were to run over to the library to find the next hint that would lead them somewhere else. Again, it was one of those times where my activity went much faster than I expected.  Instead of taking 20 minutes, it took maybe 10. They were fast! They were also really excited, which is a huge plus for me. One girl seemed particularly excited when I was explaining the game in class. It makes me feel great when that happens: not only do kids understand what I’m saying but they’re interested! Yes!

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On Friday, there was a sort of conference for English teachers and the ALTs. It was at a junior high school in Tanto, one of the towns combined to create Toyooka.  There were demonstration classes for visiting teachers to watch, one of which featured an ALT and thus was team-teaching. I watched this and the other classes, seeing how those went and what those teachers did differently. After the demonstrations,  the JTEs (Japanese teachers of English, just in case you needed a reminder) went off to a lecture. Instead of boring ourselves to tears with Japanese we couldn’t understand, my fellow ALTs and I joined to have our own meeting. It was really great – we shared ideas, vented our problems, laughed at all the funny things that happen in our schools. I think it was pretty cathartic, actually. After we convened for about an hour or so, I felt like the trip was incredibly successful and productive. And furthermore, the other ALTs are so great and it’s always fun being in their company, even when we’re at a work-related event. 

Shortly after our meeting, I whizzed back to Toyooka. I was going to be getting a train to Kobe that would get me to a bus that would take me to Tokyo during the night. We left Kobe at 10:00 pm and arrived in Shinjuku around 6:30. I probably would have slept better if they didn’t wake us up every two hours for bathroom breaks. With my tired self, I took the train to Shibuya, dropped the things I didn’t need in a coin locker, and went straight to Starbucks. With an iced caramel macchiato, a sandwich and my Kindle, I had a very peaceful morning. Once the caffeine was slowly coursing through my veins, I decided to go on an adventure of nostalgia. I got on the train towards Eda, my old home town during my study abroad days. I didn’t actually stop there until Sunday.

I felt so emotional during all of this, which may seem silly, but I cannot tell you how much I loved this place. I missed it with my whole being when I left and to be back in it was just so wonderful. Even though the overwhelming throngs of people squirming around me made an irritated Talia, it was all worth it. My first stop down memory lane was Futako-tamagawa. I spent some very fun times there with friends, having picnics, and playing with fireworks. I dropped by Tama-Plaza with the intent of finding some new sunglasses (I broke my old ones the moment I was leaving my apartment…). I came out empty handed. I ended my search because I was due back in Shibuya at Aoyama Gakuin for some lunch in the cafeteria! You may think that eating food at college is lame, but Aoyama Gakuin is famous for its school cafeteria. Apparently, it’s the best in Japan. How awesome is that? For some reason, there were TONS of people and the cafeteria was so full. Until the crowd died down, I sat and chatted with Marie and Satoshi, people who I met while going to Aoyama. Satoshi couldn’t stay long and soon had to leave for class. By the time he left though, many people had finished their lunch and were leaving the cafeteria. Marie and I seized our chance! I got a dish called katsu kare or in not so concise English, fried pork cutlet with rice slathered with curry. Super delicious.

Marie and I visited the farmer’s market across the street and went to the bookstore. I didn’t have the intention of buying anything but I saw an art book devoted to VOCALOIDs that I love (Kagamine Rin/Len) and had to get it. After that, I left Marie to hop on the train to get to Aoyama’s Sagamihara campus. They were having a culture festival and those things are always interesting. A student ran over to me while I was there and asked me if I liked yakisoba in English. Thanks to listening to too many English CDs with over the top annunciation and silly voices, I replied, “Yes, I do!” in the same tone. (If you have ever used the elementary English textbook, Eigo Nooto, you know exactly what I sounded like).

He was pleased with this answer and eagerly asked me to come eat some. Although I only had lunch a short while ago, I couldn’t say no.  After he told me the kinds of yakisoba they had, (salt flavor and pork kimchi flavor), I requested the pork kimchi and he told me it was a good choice. He asked me where I was from and I said I was from America. Now here was the kicker: he said, “Oh, your English is very good!” I just burst out laughing and started saying, “Ehh…but, wait, huh? I’m American!” and then, “YOUR English is very good!” He was laughing since he told me my English was good but laughed even more after I said that. He said thank you and then led me to where I would stand in line for my yakisoba.

I ate my yakisoba and then walked around the campus, checking out the various booths, watching the school’s music groups perform, and taking pictures. I got there right around the end so it finished maybe 30 minutes after I got there. I knew this was going to happen but I decided it may be worth going – and it was. I got back on the train back to Shibuya where I planned on meeting my friend Noel. She is from Thailand and she was an exchange student with me at Aoyama Gakuin. Now, she’s going to graduate school in Japan! In the midst of too many people, we found each other and went to a place called MOS Burger. More yummy food – Japan is full of it. And they say you lose weight here…

Anyway, we went to MOS Burger because 1) We both love it and 2) I haven’t been there in such a long time, since Toyooka sadly does not have one. One of my co-workers got me all excited when she told me there was one in a department store and then she said, “Oh wait, no, I’m sorry. I’m thinking of McDonalds…the closest one is in Tottori….” (which is another prefecture, by the way, and about an hour away). Once we finished our food, we went to Book-Off to browse. Book-Off is a wonderland of not only cheap/used books, but video games, movies, manga (doujinshi too – doujinshi are fan-made manga based on already existing series’), and music. I managed to walk out of there without anything.  Although we just ate, we went to a cheap izakaya (restaurant-pub thing) and got some drinks and snacks while we talked some more. To make things even more fun, they were playing Lady Gaga’s “The Fame” album the whole time. Squee! I At one point we were talking about Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, and in the background, I heard “Poker Face” …and I couldn’t help but dance in my seat.

It was good times.

After Noel and I parted ways, Marie met me at Shinjuku Station so she could lead me back to her apartment which is only 5 minutes away. I very quickly passed out. It was a good thing too because I had to wake up in the morning for a hair appointment in Roppongi. Although part of me regretted planning that appointment so early, I knew it would work best with my schedule. Roppongi is conveniently very close to Shinjuku so I got to sleep in for a bit. I easily made my way to the hairdressers. Thankfully for me, Ikko was still working there. Ikko is the guy who did my hair when I was studying abroad. And sure enough, he made my hair soft, shiny, and smooth! I think I had gone without a relaxer for about 2 and a half months? Yeah, the change is pretty drastic. I love it! It was a bit expensive but completely worth it. Following that, I went to my favorite crazy Don Quixote. Since Halloween’s coming up the place was decked out with decorations and costumes. They were playing Disney villain songs (particularly, “Be Prepared” and “Poor Unfortunate Souls” in one part of the store and “This is Halloween” from The Nightmare Before Christmas, so I just lingered between those two places so I could sing along. There’s a Halloween party that the ALTs are putting together so I decided that my chance of getting a costume was then. Similar to my Pikachu get-up, I bought a Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) version. I’m going to have to ask my teachers if it’s okay, but I also bought Minnie Mouse ears that have a pumpkin in place of a bow to wear at the elementary school the week before Halloween.

Once I had what I needed, I made the trek back to Eda. Of course, some of it has changed: the McDonalds that my friends and I frequented was replaced with Sukiya (beef bowl fast food restaurant) and Lawson replaced the convenient store AmPm. AmPm was bought out apparently. I still don’t understand why that McDonald’s was closed…it totally had business! Oh well.

I walked around town and past my dorm. I didn’t try going inside – I don’t know if anyone I know is still there and the management was probably different. Also, I wasn’t sure how it would be like for me to just come in there saying, “I used to live here. Can I come inside? It’s nostalgic…” So, I didn’t. I made my way over to Saizeriya, a cheap Italian family restaurant that I loved to go to with my friends. I got the meal that I used to always order and quietly read on my Kindle. This is probably the laziest trip to Tokyo ever, but that’s okay, it was exactly what I wanted. Eventually, it was time to head back to Shibuya. I got there an hour before everyone else. But you can’t be bored in Shibuya. Not only are there tons of shops and arcades to explore, just people watching is fascinating. I forgot the degree of incomprehensible fashion that the people up there wear.  Also, all the men are so pretty (sometimes this is a good thing and sometimes I’m confused) and all the girls are so skinny (I was pretty self-conscious about my body before, but being in Tokyo honestly makes it worse). After a bit of examining people, I decided to just walk around. I ended up in a manga/anime/video game paraphernalia store and found something I couldn’t leave without. I succumbed to buying a figurine of a character from one of my favorite animated movies,  Summer Wars. Now that I think about it, I probably wouldn’t have found out about that movie until much later if my Japanese teacher at Aoyama hadn’t showed us in class as both grammar practice and entertainment. Full circle! I browsed around the giant Tsutaya back near the train station and later found my friends, Marie, Kazu, and Laura. We went to the same izakaya chain that Noel and I went to the night before. We gorged ourselves on food, followed by two hours of karaoke, and finished the night off with purikura (print club a.k.a. super advanced photo booth of excellence).  It was the grand finale for my last night in the city – for now.

Marie and I went back to her apartment where I again just dropped dead asleep.  The next morning I struggled to get myself off the futon Marie let me borrow. We said our goodbyes and had our hugs and I was out the door. With the help of some train station employees, I easily made it back home on the shinkansen and limited express train back to Toyooka. By the time I had returned I had about four hours before I would haul myself to Takeno for Canadian Thanksgiving. For the record, there was no school on Monday due to Sports and Health Day (a Japanese holiday). Although only two of the ALTs happen to be Canadian, a bunch of us all gathered at Ashley’s house for food and fellowship. It was great! Despite my slight exhaustion, I managed to contribute some mini hamburgs (a hamburg is a hamburger without any buns essentially – I didn’t make this up, Japan did) that I fried up at home. In addition to that, we had turkey(!) and gravy, kimchi and tofu spaghetti, meatballs, rolls, baked pasta and vegetables, stuffing, pizza, homemade bread, scalloped potatoes, mashed potatoes, cookies, homemade cheesecake, and ice cream! It was a feast! I had so much fun talking with people, meeting new people, and bonding over K-Pop. I guess I was in such good spirits, I couldn’t stop dancing around. Many people brought this up. My students bring it up a lot too, now that I think about it.

On Tuesday, I was back at Naka Takeno. My lesson on shapes with the fourth graders went really well. Everyone enjoyed the activities and they were willing to participate. I could tell that the special needs kids in the class were also happy with what we were doing and understanding it, so that was a huge relief. They gave me high fives at the end of the lesson. Due to a schedule mix-up, I only had 15 minutes with the 1^st graders but that’s okay, because it was enough time to have fun. A couple of mothers were in the class watching(it was “open school”), so I’m even more glad that it went without a hitch.

Since the kids got to go home early, and nearly all the teachers were gone observing classes at other schools, my vice principal said I could go home early. I hope he didn’t catch me nearly falling asleep at my desk though. As I was sitting and thinking of warm-up games for the junior high students, I felt a rush of fatigue. Before that though, I played with the little kindergartners outside! We played hide-and-seek again (kakurenbo in Japanese). One of the little boys decided to point out a feature of my anatomy (my chest) and comment on how big it is. Lovely. Although I quickly made him stop talking and told him it wasn’t something to talk about, I was trying very hard to restrain from laughing. It was only a matter of time before that awkward topic would come up because children don’t know what awkward is and see nothing wrong with the topic. A couple of other children started tapping them – not in a, “I’m trying to get your attention and this is as high as my hand goes” but in a, “Hahaha, this is funny!” Yeah, I had to nip that in the bud real fast. When I said, “No! Don’t do that!” one of the girls said to her friend that bopped me, “When she says ‘no,’ it means that you mustn’t do that!” What a good little girl.

Today, I’m at Morimoto and all the kids are taking midterms. No classes today and the kids go home early…which also means no school lunch. Woops, I forgot about that. I guess I’ll be taking a trip to Lawson during lunch hour.

INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT:

There were bears spotted in Takeno! Eating persimmons! 

Takamatsu-sensei laughed and said, "So scary! We should go home now."


Pictures From the Weekend