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.
