Yeah yeah yeah

I haven't written in forever, I'm a horrible person, I'm breaking promises left and right, etc. In my own defense I actually have two blog posts basically written, I just keep forgetting to reshape the pics to fit on the site.

I'm lazy. I apologize.

But what just happened now is much to good to pass up.

Its about 5 minutes until lunch time. And there is bread. BREAD! Instead of rice!!

I'm tearing up a little just looking at it. Every lunch has been a race against the clock, to eat every single freak'n grain of rice before lunch time runs out, and I must shoulder the shame of throwing away rice.

*shudders* just thinking about it makes my chest twist up in pain and gives the urge to throw myself to the ground in the lowest most grovely bow of apology possible.

And they pile that rice high too. Higher than the rum of the bowl. That is ALOT of rice. ALOT of plain. white. rice.

And they eat every grain. And I do mean *every* grain. They will actually pick up a single grain of rice with their chopsticks to eat it, to make sure nothing is left. The children do this. My 1st graders in elementary school yelled at me because I had rice left on my plate when I put it away.

Like 7 whole grains worth.

But today there is bread. Blessed. Blessed bread.

Its a Christmas Miracle!

Okay I know

I keep making promises, and hten take my sweet time in fulfilling them, but I swear there will be a post about Sports day coming. I just haven’t uploaded the pictures/video I took of it onto my computer yet.

But its coming. I swear!

To tide the masses over here’s a post about what I do in my elementary schools. As its quite different from junior high.

First of all, I have 6 different elementary schools. 4 of them are elementary schools that feed into my middle school, with two of them being E.S.es that feed into F’s (you remember F. The girl who lives farthest away) middle schools. The last two are also the farthest away from me, about 40 minutes by taxi, 50-60 minutes by bus. Why I go to these two elementary schools instead of F (who lives maybe, tops, 20 minutes away by *bus* from these schools) is beyond me. But here we are.

Anyway my elementary schools are as followed, from closest ot farthest away.

A.E.S, which is like a 5 minute walk from my apartment.
K.E.S. which is about a 10 minute bus ride.
I.E.S. about a 15 minute bus ride.
H.E.S. which is about a 20 minute bus ride.
W.H.E.S. about 50 minutes by bus.
W.E.S. about 40-50 minutes by taxi. (WES is actually farther away than WHES but since I get to take a taxi there it takes a bit less time).

Now before I get into profiles of each indivudal elementary school, a brief over view of elementary schools in general. First of all, elementary school is a wild time. The children have as of yet to begin to be absorbed into Japanese Society, seen by the fact that they don’t have to wear uniforms. Instead they’re just in their regular clothes, shorts, t-shirts, skirts, whatever. They run about the halls, aren’t afraid to ask questions or to answer them, and they have no qualms about sticking their hands wrist deep into a foriegner’s curly poofy hair.

But I digress.

The teachers too are different. The dress code is way more lax, I’ve seen teachers come in jeans, and many of them simply wear comfortable clothes. Which makes sense considering they’re working with little kids and things are bound to get dirty haha. The principle and vice principles have all been quite happy people, with smiles and jokes and happy to chat, and all the teachers are very kind, happy, easy going people.

Huzzah!

Elementary schools in japan are from 1st grade to 6th grade. Kindergarden is voluntary, and is from ages 4 to 6. I have one kindergarden class that’s connected to A.E.S, and we’ll get to them later.

Now this year Japan has just started having an English curriculm for 5th and 6th graders, complete with a text book and such. However there isn’t an English teacher for elementary schools. Save for like art class and music, each class has one basic teacher for the entire time (like elementary schools in America, there’a 1st grade teacher, a 2nd grade teacher, etc.), and these teachers of course aren’t required to speak English, and most of them can’t. Thus while there is a book, many of my elementary schools don’t actually *use* it. Or even if they do, there’s really only so much one can learn when the teacher doesn’t know English themselves.

Now your thinking, but hey! I’m here right? I’m the English teacher! So what’s the problem? The problem is that I have 6 elementary schools, and only two days a week in which I go to them. Added to that, I go to a different elementary school on Wednesday and Friday. Thus each month I get to see only 1, *sometimes* 2 elementarys schools twice, with the rest only seeing me once a month.

There is really only so much I can teach them with 1 class, once a month.

But that’s why JET tells you that the purpose of all this isn’t so much to teach English, but just to get the kids *excited* about English, and about foreign cultures in general. So basically my classes are filled with random games, done mostly in English, rather than like real *lessons*.

4 of my elementary schools are pretty small, and 2 are “big” for the island. K.E.S. and A.E.S. have somewhere between 90 and 150 students respectively. (I don’t even think its 150, more like 120ish, but I can’t remember exactly.). The other 4 schools have between 30 and 40 kids, in total. I always have a 5th/6th grade class as those are the classes that are supposed to have like real English lessons. The two bigger schools will also have me switch about with the other grades, some days I have a 4th grade class, some days I have a 1st grade class, etc. The other 4 schools I always teach every class. However since the classes are so small, I teach two grades together, 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6. I get the feeling that the combination of classes often happens, as there might only be three 1st graders or seven 6th graders or whatver.

For 5th and 6th grade classes, all of us JETs on the island get English Assitants. These are Japanese women who, for whatever reason, know a respectable amount of English, and can help with communication between myself, the teachers, and the students.

For 1st-4th though, I’m on my own.

Its not too bad, since I know some Japanese myself, but I am definitely thankful for the assistant. Sometimes there’s time issues, and its just faster to quickly explain my game plan to the assistant in English, and her explain it in Japanese to the teacher before class. Other times I really just have no idea what the teacher or kid is saying, as the teachers (especially the male ones) don’t bother to make their Japanese more comprehensible, and the kids speak kid-dialect, which I need more time observing and documenting before I’ll begin to understand it.

5th and 6th graders I can normally understand, though they seem to have more of an issue understanding me haha. 4th graders it depends on the kid. But that 1st – 3rd grade…they’ll just go on and on and on about junk in that kid way that normally deosn’t make sense in one’s own language, let alone another.

Luckily I can smile, nod, and make a funny face at them and all is well.

Anyway I have two English Assitants, one that comes to A.E.S. and K.E.S., and another that comes to the rest. The A.E.S. and K.E.S. Assitant is a young woman about my age, who was good friends with the previous JETs, and whose English is better than my Japaense. Dad you’ll know her as the girl who’s family owns a restaurant and who reserved the tickets for you. She studied abroad in England for a time, which is why her English is so good. We’ve hung out a bit outside of work as well, and I count her as a friend.

The other woman is an older woman maybe around mom’s age. Her English isn’t as good my other assitant’s, but its REALLY good considering she’s never been abroad, and learned all her English in an English school in Japan when she was like high school-college age, and she’s hardly ever used it since.

So all things considered, she gets serious props.

She’s also really nice and is my milk supporter, as she doesn’t like to drink straight up milk either, and got me off the hook of it in my other elementary schools, by explaining that I just don’t like the taste of straight up milk, and I bring my own ice tea to compensate for it. It’s the same thing I said, but coming from her, it sounds more legit. (So no more sketchly trying ot pawn milk off on a kid or hiding it in a fridge! Whoo hoo! For my elementary schools at least).

Anyway more about the schools and what I do there. So my predecessor tells me that with three of the schools he created his own lesson plans, and with three of the schools the teachers already had plans and he followed their lead. I don’t know if the teacers changed or if they’ve decided to do things differently or if I just missed something in translation, but so far I’d say only like 2 or 3 classes (out of all my classes in all my elementary schools) have given me lesson plans, rather than just have me lead the class. And these classes aren’t even all in the same school. Like one 1st grade teacher in one class did her own English games, rather than the ones I had brought, where as the rest of the teachers in that school were just like “go ahead and do whatever”, then there was another random 4th grade teacher in another school who told me what he wanted to do because he thought my games were too hard (despite that I had done the games already in other schools for the same grade with great results). Then one teacher in one school asked me to come up with a game for a particular lesson for next time, which I’m fine with. But the rest of the teachers have just been like “so, what are we doing?” if they ask me at all before class. So basically it’s all me.

Which is equal parts exciting and terrifying.

Its mixed feelings, between how things are done with middle school and with elementary school. On the one hand, elementary school kids are just great to be around, because they’ve yet to be bent or broken by the system. They’re still at that age where everything is fun, especially learning, and the slightest of things gives them great joy and makes them love you forever. But while I like making up games and I’m happy to do so, I prefer having the teachers give me like…a topic to make a game around, like the middle school teachers do. They tell me “okay, make a game based on colors” or “make a game based around the phrase “where are you from”, and I’m completely down with that. But its hard for the elementary schools, because I really don’t know like whats too hard, what’s too easy, and what they’ve kinda sorta learned and what they haven’t. So I’m basically just pulling topics out of the air, making up games, and crossing my fingers that they work.

The one kinda nice thing though is that since I only see the schools once a month, I can use the same basic game for each school, with minor tweaks ehre and there depending on the grade, the size of the class, and how well it did in the previous elementary school.

Another nice thing about the elementary schools is lunch time. I dread lunch time in junior high, and not just because of my milk issues.

(Speaking of milk issues, here’s a little side story. So after my assistant explained to the elementary schools that don’t drink milk, milk was no longer given to me on my tray of elementary school lunch, for like severl of the elementary schools, not just the one my assistant talk to. The entire explanation took like 20 seconds, the teachers didn’t panic, the apocalypse didn’t come, and I was free to drink my tea, guilt free. My junior high school continues to give me milk, but I continue to put it in the fridge, and it continues to disappear at the beginning of each week. It’s a system I’m comfortable with. Anway the other day I was sitting at my desk in middle school, planning a game when the office phone rings. One of the other teachers picks up and then calls me over. Its my supervisor (you remember him, nice guy, sweats a lot Japanese is impossible to understand…) anyway he calls and his voice is in that classic Japanese panic mode, the same mode my teachers went in when *I* tried to explain to them that I don’t drink milk.

Him: “You can’t drink milk??”
Me: “Umm…what?” *thinking: for the love of pete, can’t people just let the milk thing go??*
Him: “You don’t drink the milk! Do you not like milk??”
Me: “I don’t mind milk in things, like chocolate milk, milk in coffee, or ice cream. I just don’t like the taste of JUST milk.”
Him: “…do you have an allergy?”
Me:”…no. No I don’t. I just don’t like the taste of just milk, but I do like milk in stuff.”
Him: “If you say you have an allergy, than you won’t have to pay for the milk in the lunches. I will tell the schools you have an allergy.”
Me: “Umm please don’t. I don’t have an allergy! I eat ice cream. They’ve seen me put milk in coffee! I don’t mind paying the money for the milk. I bring my own tea, I put the milk in the fridge for others to drink. Its fine, please don’t tell people I have an allergy.”
Him: “But if you have an allergy-“
Me:” “No. It’s really fine. Pelase don’t worry about it. I do not have an allergy.”
Him: “you know you are paying for the milk right?”
Me: “I recognize I am paying for milk. I do not care. Everything is fine. Please do not say I have an allergy.”
Him: “well…okay…but..”
Me: “Thank! Talk to you later!”

Whyyyy is milk such an issue?? Seriously, tis like a buck ten to pay for the milk. I’m really not worried abou the milk. And all I could think of when he was like “I’ll say its an allergy” was that tey’ve seen me eat ice cream, they’ve seen me put milk in coffee, they’ve seen me with milk tea…All I need in life is for a milk lie to be the cause of a deportation from Japan.

But anyway, back to our regularly scheduled blogging)

So lunch time in middle school is just awkward. When I’m teaching a class, visiting a club, or just wandering the halls, the kids are very responsive toward me. I think its because the time together is either structured, with clear like roles, what we’ll be doing, and what responses should be given, and because individual time together is very limited. But at lunch time, there’s no structured sort of conversation, and the time goes on and on. So the kids I sit next to become very quiet, or the mumble to their friend sitting next to them, and ignore me while stealing glances over. When I try to talk to them, in English and in Japanese, they’re responses are very short, and then they stuff food into their mouth so they don’t have to respond at all.

Then there’s the fact that while techincially oen gets 30 minutes for lunch, that time is like cut in half because its also the lunch preparation time, and no one can start eating until everyone is served. So they have like 15 minutes to eat *everything* on their plate (and they do it too, I have absolutely no idea how. Either they just don’t chew, or they have more teeth than I do, because I *always* have food left on my plate, despite my best efforts, and no matter how hungry I am, when lunch is over). So much of the lunch period is spent in silence, while people speed eat or do quiet chatter amongst themselves.

Not to mention I always feel bad trying to talk when they’re so embaressed about talking while eating. Many of the kids don’t like to show they’re teeth, for example, and even if I try to time the questions so they’re mouth isn’t full, they still seem a bit embarrassed by it and I don’t want to put kids on the spot, though I also don’t want to ignore them. It’s a very stressful time for me, trying to find a good middle ground.

Elementary schoolers though, thats not the case. There’s a little more time for lunch, first of all, which is very helpful, but elementary schoolers aren’t afraid to ask questions or answer them, they certainly don’t mind talking while eating (infact I think some prefer to talk while they’re mouths are full for the sheer disgusting factor that is so alluring to little kids), and they love to correct me on my eating habbits, like how I should use chop sticks or where my arms are supposed to go.

Infact its more often the case where I have like 5 kids trying to tell me different thigns at once. Then, if the conversation ever lags, I just have to make a face, or show them the various things I can do with my body (such as move my neck/head side to side while its facing forward, put my tongue into a star shape, my double jointed thumb, making a popping sound with my lips…) and the crowd goes wild.

After lunch there’s a brief break of putting the lunch things away, and then its 40 minutes of free time/recess. A.K.A. when all the children are set loose in the halls to try and drain a tiny bit of their boundless energy, which has now been doubled by the fact they are no longer slowed by hunger. While the rest of the teachers get to sit back and relax while children run loose in the halls and outside in the playground, part of my job is to go out and interact with the kids during this time. Its a lot of fun, but its also hard work. I normally have at least 5 litlte girls attached to my arms, legs, or back at any one time. Normally they’re of the younger grades, but in A.E.S. there’s one 6th grade girl who also latches on to me. Now don’t get me wrong, its very sweet and warms my heart that they’re already so attached to me, but it also makes things harder, because I *try* to split my time between as many kids as possible. But I can’t just like, shake the little girls off and tell them to go away, I want to play with those kids now, you know? So I try to get involed in games that can have large amounts of participation, rather than have this one group of girls drag me off to have their way with my hair.

((my hair by the by fascinates the kids, from both elementary and junior high schoolers. They’ve never seen the like before. The look at my hair the same way I imagine European scientists looked at the only duck billed egg laying poisonous mammel, when Platypuses were first “discovered”. Their first reaction is to just stare at it, wide eyed and slack jawed. Their second reaction is to plunge their hands into it as deep as possible, to confirm its existence. And of course once one does it, *everyone* wants to do it, and before I even have time to breath, I suddenly have 20 kids grabbing at my hair. Normally this is right after lunch time, but *before* cleaning time. Fun.))

Anyway these games are normally some form of tag, and I am almost *always* it. And even if I’m not it, all the kids who are it immediately target me, so its not very long before I am it. (In Japan, kids don’t say they’re “it” by the by, instead someone is the “oni” or the demon.) Then I get to run about chasing dozens of children in the hot sun. There’s no shade on these playgrounds. I think the teachers secretly hope that the sun and heat will help to drain more of the kid’s energy, so that they’re just at the point of utter exhaustion before they have to come inside.

Unfortunately they’re elementary school children, and they never run out of energy. I personally believe that if we just hooked up children ages 7 to 11 to some sort of battery system, we could power the world. It wouldn’t even take that many kids. Just a few from each country would do.

Anyway this is how my recesses normally go:

I go outside.
Little girls and sometimes a couple of little boys latch on to every limb possible.
Some body yells that I’m the oni (demon).
I start to chase children while roaring “I’m hungry!” in the burning sun non stop for about 10-15 minutes.
I collapse and say that the oni is dead.
Children poke me.
Somebody steals my hat.
I chase until I get my hat back.
A kid begins to shimmy up my back like a moneky.
I fufill their dreams of being tall by giving out piggy back rides. (Which they love. They keep shouting “I’m so tall! I’m so tall!” as I walk about.)
Recess ends, I go inside, collapse in my chair, and try hard to stay awake while the teachers, (who have been leanng back in their desks nad drinking their tea and coffee in the nice air confitioned teacher’s lounge, watching me out the window) discuss how much energy the kids have, and ask me, fighting back grins, if I’m tired.

This is how recess is for basically all of my elementary schools.

It is fun though, as exhausting as it is. Normally one child, and normally a girl, will take it upon herself to explain to me the rules of the various games of tag that they have, or try and keep the really little ones from burying me under their bodies. Its actually very sweet and very amusing. There was one school, I forget which, where a little girl who was either in the 4th or 3rd grade took on this responsibility. They wanted to play a particular version of tag, and like 5 kids were trying to explain it to me at once, and I was thus understanding none of them. Finally the little girl was like “okay, everyone shut up.” And then, in surprisingly simple and easily understandable Japanese (rather than child-dilalect), explained to me exactly how to play the game. When I began to feel exhausted from the constant running about in the sun trying to catch children, she called a halt to the game and lead me over to the only spot of shade in the playground and told everyone that it was now “rest time”, and to stop tagging me for being the oni (which they were still doing haha). She then directed me to the water fountains. When recess ended, we chatted about the differences between American schools and Japanese schools (she was quite jealous that American schools didn’t have a cleaning time where all the students have to clean up the school every day), and would even translate child-Japanese into understandable Japanese, when the 1st and 2nd graders would run up and ask/tell me things.

I was quite impressed. She’ll make quite the powerful ninja-obaachan someday.
Now a brief look at each elementary school.

A.E.S, which is like a 5 minute walk from my apartment.
One of the larger elementary schools, it has over one hundred students, two 1st grade classes, and then one class of each of the other grades, and then a large kindergarden class. The classes here are large enough that I don’t teach two grades at once, and thus each time I go there, I have two periods of 5th and 6th graders respectively, and then one or two periods with one or two other grades, and then I each lunch with one of the grades. Every other time I go there, I also “teach” a kindergarten class.

I use the term “teach” loosely, as one does not ‘teach” kindergarten, but just trys to survive it. As I said before, kindergarten is for ages 4-6. So kids start with they’re four, then keep going back for 3 years until they can move on to 1st grade. While the 6 year olds might be able to comphrend things, those 4 year olds…they barely know Japanese, let alone English. And even if they did, how much can one really *teach* a 4 year old? Its day care is what it is, and I get to be the guest baby sitter once in a awhile.

It doesn’t help that this kindergarten is freak’n huge. There’s like 40 of them. I don’t think Barney could keep the attention of forty 4-6 year olds at the same time. But I do the best I can. I’ve only ahd them once so far. I sang a frog song that has some funny gestures that they did with me while I sang, we went over the colors “red, yellow, and green”, and then played “red light green light”, where, in theory, red means stop, yellow means slow (walk), and green means go (run).

In reality red means inch forward, yellow means run, and green means make a running leap for the foreigner and smash anyone who dares to get in your way.

They loved it though and wanted to play it over and over and over and over and over again.

Finally though I got the kids to agree to switch games, and we playe “cat cat dog”, which is duck duck goose but with the names changed to animals they were more likely to know. That game too was a big hit, and we played it until it was time for me to go.

And by ‘go” I mean try to wade through the bodies of forty 4-6 year olds who had suddenly latched on to every part of my body to get me to stay.

Luckily the teachers (there’s like 4 of them for the kindergarteners. I still think they need reinforcements), knew just what to do in that situation. They had all the kids stand in to lines and hold up their arms to make a tunnel, which I had to crawl through to get to the exit, while the children called out their “see you!”s. They really liked seeing me crawl beneath their arms (and I had to really get down there too lol, basically do the warm), and I got out of there unharmed, if a bit dusty and sticky haha.

K.E.S. which is about a 10 minute bus ride.

The other fairly large school, though I think it actually has less kids than A.E.S., even though the school building itself is bigger. The teachers here are all very nice, and it was the first elementary school I ever went to. The first itme I wnet there actually, I missed the bus I was supposed to take. *Not* because I was late. I was there like 20 minutes early. However, all the bus names are written in Kanji of course. I had a sheet my supervisor gave me that supposedly told me which bus I was supposed to get on. But none of the busses that came through the terminal had the same set of kanji. Finally the time I was spposed to board the bus came and went, and I asked one of the people working there when the bus I wanted was supposed to come.

She blinks at me, and informs me that it already left a while ago.

….wtf mate!

Luckily there’s a taxi stand right across from the bus station, so I quickly hopped into a taxi and still got to school basically on time, but later than I was supposed to. Panicing, since this was my first day of elementary school and I had so wanted to make a good impression, I explain to a bunch of bemused teachers how I missed the bus and the names were weird and I can’t read kanji very well and I took a taxi and I was so so so sorry I was late (I got in at 8 33, I was supposed to be ther at 830). The vice principle and the teachers then tell me that I’m not late (they actually really hadn’t noticed. I ogt the impression I could have ocme in at like 840, 845 and they wouldn’t have cared), and since I didn’t hav a class until like 2nd period it didn’t matter anyway. Then the VP sometime during the day while I was with the kids, reaserched the busses, and, when I came back in after recess, showed me on a map a new and closer bus stop to my house where the bus I needed and *only* the bus I needed stopped at and what time it stopped at. Then another lady who works at the school (she’s not actually a teacher. Nor is she like a janitor. I think her sole purpose is to make people tea and run like little errands for the teachers), that if I ever missed the bus or whatever again, to call the school and she’d come pick me up, because taxis are too expensive and I shouldn’t have to worry about it.

It was just SO nice of them, and they were actually sincere about it too, and were all very kind about it. So it made what I thought was going to be a bad day, a good one.

(Why my supervisor didn’t tell me about this much easier way to get my bus is beyond me. And I was definitely frusterated by the fact that a lot of the bus names are actually different than what he told me. Like they’re the same bus, but they’re called two different hings, and the kanji on the busses are different then whats written. Don’t ask me why.)

I.E.S. about a 15 minute bus ride.
H.E.S. which is about a 20 minute bus ride.

I keep getting these two schools mixed up in my head. They’re both about the same size. I take the same bus to get to them, and they’re in the same basic area. The only difference is that one is nearer the water. I think its H.E.S. but I can’t swear by it. One fun thing though, in one of the schools, I think I.E.S. they’re putting on a play, in English, of Momotarou the Peach boy. For those of you who weren’t in Ishida-sensei’s first year Japanese class, Momotarou is a Japanese fairy tale. The basic story line is that this old man and woman find a boy in a giant peach, and raise him as their own. When the boy grows up, he decides to go beat up some demons. The old woman pakcs him some steroid-filled pasteries and he’s on his way. Along the way he gives a pastery to a dog, a monkey, and a bird, who become his faithful companions who, with their new found pastery strength, beat up a all the minion demons, while Momotarou takes out the demon king, Goto Ranger style. Momotarou then takes all the demon’s treasure and goes back home to set up his adoptive parents in style and to live happily ever after in the lap of luxery.

Moral of the story: Violence, Wealth, and Steroids = eternal happiness.

Anyway they 5th and 6th graders are putting on the play in English, and they asked me to watch one of their rehersals and make comments about how the English was and such. And the kids were actually really good! I was quite pleased and proud. I then helped the kids with some of their lines, pronounciation, meaning, and tones of the sentances so they wouldn’t just read it all dead panned, which was quite fun. Then, later, the teacher gave me a copy of the script, and asked if I could record myself reading it aloud, so that the kids could listen to it and imitate how I say things.

I love the idea of getting an entire generation of children to speak the way I do <.< >.>

W.H.E.S. about 50 minutes by bus.
This was actually the second elementary school I went to, and after the first bus fiasco, I was quite nervous about doing it again. My bus was supposed to arrive at like 7:39, so I was there by, oh, 7am. Buses came, busses went. Then at 7: *30* a bus came that had the kanji I was looking for. But it was 730. Not 739 like I was told. I started to panic, but there isn’t anyone working at the terminal until 8am, so there was no one to ask.

So I asked the bus driver if the bus was going to my school. He gives mean odd look, but nodds, and I get on the bus.

I thought the odd look was just because I was a foreigner speaking Japanese. I get these looks all the time, so I dodn’t really think about it.

As the bus goes along, it begins to slowly dawn on me that everyone boarding the bus looks to be a student. A *high*school student.

I’m the only one nolt wearing a high school uniform.

Immediately I begin to panic again. Have I gotton on a school bus by mistake? Is this bus taking me to the highschool that’s on the other side of the island, rather than the bus stop that’s near my elementary school.
Crap!crapcrapcrapcrapcrap-

Elementary schoolers begin to board the bus.

I’m possibly saved!

As more and more kids, now a mixture of elementary and high school students board the bus, I begin to feel a little better. But I’m still worried. There’s loads of elementary schools on the island. What if this bus only stops at a select few, mine not being one of them, and the bus driver didn’t understand me or something?

And then, behind me, I hear a little boy’s voice say in hushed excitement that today the new English teacher was supposed to come to his school! Robin sensei!

I turned around and, grinning at the boy, informed him that I was Robin sensei. He gasped and did the Japanese “stumble back in disbelief” move that I used to think was just something done in anime, but people actually do, even when they’re sitting in a bus seat. I asked him if he was as student at W.H.E.S. which he gave an enthusiastic nod to, while other little ones began to enthusiastically chime in that they were students there too.

Huzzah!

Whether or not it was the bus I was supposed to take is beyond me. But it gets me to where I’m going, and that’s all that matters.

W.E.S. about 40-50 minutes by taxi.
It’s the only school I take a taxi to, and it costs like 50 bucks (5000 yen) one way, from my apartment to the school.

Because the school is on an entirely separate island.

Its connected by a bridge though, and is still counted as part of the larger town, btu still. Seriously? Not to mention that its maybe 10-20 minutes tops to get there from where F lives, and all the kids there feed into her middle school anyway. But its my elementary school, so away I go. Its actually rather nice. Since I take a taxi there, a taxi which is already paid for by the BoE, I don’t have to do anything but make small talk with the driver and doze in the back seat. No worries about taking the right bus or getting off at the right stop. The taxi picks me up right infront of my apartment, and drops me off right at my apartment.

Its amazing.

The school itself is pretty amazing too, in that its just so freak’n OLD. It’s the only building in the whole area that still made entirely out of wood. It looks like something from the days of WWI and WWII, and I’m pretty sure its been standing for about that long. There’s only 30 kids in the entire school (that’s 6 grades, 30 kids), but thye’re all really sweet, as are the teachers. It’s the only school I’ve seen where the teachers, all of them, actually go out during recess and play with the kids. Even the Principle and VP were out there for a bit. And all the children really look out for eachother too. The older ones help the younger ones, they all play together, its very much like a little family. For all that its super far away, very old, and I think pretty poor (the area its in is a pretty poor area, just a little fishing village), I just get a very good vibe from it. I’ve heard though that there’s been talk of finally closing it down, and combing it with one of the other elementary schools. I can see where they’re coming from, its such a small old school, but I can’t help but feel a little saddened if they do close it down.

But at any rate, that’s my elementary schools at a glance. Later I’ll upload my pictures and speak of the phenomena that is sports day.

Crazy crazy stuff.

There are some things…

That are very different between Japanese schools and American schools. And there are some things that are the same.

Mostly though, there are things that are “business as usual” in Japanese schools, that American schools would never even think of having, let alone getting the students to actually DO.

These past two weeks I’ve been very busy, as school has started, and I have to actually *work* to earn my salary. (What a crazy concept!) Now being an accomplished ethnographer and anthropologist (coughcough), I have of course been taking this opportunity to do some off the cuff ethnography work, in my unique perspective as an assistant language teacher (read: participant-observation!) Through my ethnography, I’ve been on the idea that, when it comes down to the basics of the basics, and speaking very broadly and in very general terms, the root of most, if not all differences between America and Japan is this:

In America, the idea is that one has to stand out from the crowd, be somehow better, or at least more unique, then everyone else in someway to be able to make it in the world. We want to be, in some cases have to be, different in order to succeed. Americans are individuals. An army of one, if you will.

In Japan, the idea is the exact opposite. One has to blend in, be *of* the crowd, use your special gifts not to make yourself better, but to better the *group*. Team work, doesn’t even begin to describe the focus on being able to wrok together, to move forward not as individuals, but as a single unit of people. If one person fails, the group fails, and any success is the group’s success, not your own. They are the few, the proud, the Japanese.

That’s not to say that both don’t Aim High of course, but they just do it in differnet ways.

(End military puns).

First off, a little on what my job is as a JET. So I work at 7 different schools, 6 elementary schools and 1 junior high school. Mon, Tues, and Thurs I work at my base school, the junior high school. Wednesdays and Fridays I go to a different elementary school on each day. This means I really only go to each elementary school once a month, with maybe like two of the schools twice a month. What I do depends entirely on the school and the teachers. I’ve been to 4 elementary schools so far and my base school. Here’s a brief look at each one:

Junior High:
My main school, and the one I’m at the most. There are two JTEs here, and I work with both of them. One JTE works with the 2nd years (8th graders) and all but one first year class (7th graders). The other JTE works all the 3rd years (9th graders) and one 1st year class. Both are very nice, and I sit next to the one who works with the 2nd years, with the one with the 3rd years sitting behind me. Both are pretty much fluent in English, which is very surprising as that doesn’t happen often. Normally the Japanese English Teachers can’t speak English very well, but know how to read and write it and know the grammar points, if that makes sense. There’s another guy, the social studies teacher, who is also very good at English. The Vice Principle told me that he’s won Best Teacher awards before, and is from Tokyo (he’s the Shintoist I mentioned before). The other teachers don’t know much English, but they’re all very nice. I’ve basically put the teachers into two categories in my mind:
Allies: these are the teachers who have talked with me randomly, helped me out with something when I have the classic forienger (in Japanese: gaijin) *what the cheese is happening* look on my face, and whom I feel comfortable going up to ask a question if one of my JTEs isn’t around. Most of the people in this category are female teachers, with a few males thrown in, like the girl’s volleyball coach, the social studies teacher, and the Vice Principle.
Neutrals: These are the teachers who haven’t been in any way mean or unkind or anything to me, but who also haven’t made any sort of effort to talk to me either, and thus I feel kinda awkward going up to them randomly. Most of the people in this category are male, with the exception of the music teacher, who is female and whom I just haven’t really talked to, and the guidance counseler, who isn’t at the school very often because she has several schools she has to guide, I believe.

There is sort of a third category, which is really more of a sub category of the Allies section, and it has only one woman in it.

She’s an ally, but I’m slightly scared of her.

Again, not because she’s in any way mean or whatever to me, but just because she has that “I’m not gonna put up with anyone’s S.” look about her (Family inside joke: the Yum Syndrome). The fear comes from the prospect of ever getting on her bad side. She’s the third grade teacher leader, and the female PE coach, a fit older woman who is going to become one heck of a ninja obaachan.

She’s been nothing but kind to me, probably because whenever she asks me to do something I jump right to it so I don’t get ninjaed.

Anyway more on the teachers. So all the teachers are separated into three sections: 1st year teachers, 2nd year teachers, and 3rd year teachers, and while some teachers might teach more than one year, they’re responsibility is mostly with that particular year. I forget if I’ve mentioned it before, but one of the big differences between American and Japense schools is the way the class system works. In America, once one gets to middle/highschool, the students move from class to class, and the teachers more or less stay put. In America, the English teacher has her own classroom, and students come and go to that classroom as the period demands, etc. In Japan, the teachers don’t have their own classrooms, they have that big teacher room with their desk and such. The kids all stay in one classroom, and the teachers come and go depending on the period. So when its math time, the math teacher goes to a particular classroom and teaches the class. Then he leaves and the social studies teacher comes in, etc. Also the kids in one class are always together, unlike an Ameican school where you might have be in 3 different classes with completely different students in each class. The classes do get switched around every year, but during htat year the kids get to know the other kids in their class really well, and all the teachers know every student by name (except for me >.>;;; but I’m working on it!!!)

Anyway so that’s a brief overview of the teachers at my JHS. Now for the classes.

Unless the JTE is just handing back and going over tests, I assist in every English class. Sometimes this means I only have one or two periods a day, sometimes it means I have a class every period. When I don’t have class, I’m still busy because I need to use the time to prepare for the next lesson, or to prepare for elementary school lessons, or there’s Sports day practice (which I’ll get to in a moment). Both JTEs will tell me what the general lesson plan is (aka what the topic of the lesson is, numbers, colors, a particular grammar point, etc), and then I come up with a game or something to help teach it. I discuss the game with the JTE, it becomes tweaked with the JTE’s suggestions, and then we go off and do it. Both JTEs have their own way of doing things, so while some things I might be able to use in both sets of classes, mostly its different stuff.

Sometimes I get to know the new lesson plan before the day I have to do it, often though it’s the day of, and I have to make the plans and the preparations during my free time.

All last week though was pretty simple, as the lesson was based around my introduction, so it was the basic same stuff with both JTEs. I made up a little speech about myself, the places I’ve lived, and my family. I show them where I’ve lived on the map, and pass out photos and little trinkets or whatever from said places. (All of this is in English by the by, though sometimes the JTE will translate a couple of things in Japanese). Then we play a quiz game about my introduction. The 3rd year JTE hands out worksheets that I created that ask a series of multiple choice questions about my little speech. The kids answer the questions, then we go over them. After that we play a general question game, where a row of kids stands up. I ask a question in English, and if a kid answers correctly they get to sit down. When there’s just one kid left standing, his/her column has to stand up, and I ask more questions. The last kid standing has their row stand up, and so on and so forth. With the 2nd year teacher, the kids split up into groups of about 4 or 5. I ask the question about my speech and, as a group, the write the answer on a sheet of paper. I go “5 4 3 2 1” and on 1 they have to show their answer. If they write the correct answer in English they get 2 points, the correct answer in Japanese they get 1 point. The winning group gets stickers or something.

The second week has been more real lessons, with me having lessons based around colors, numbers and sentances like “the dog is behind thebox. The dog is infront of the box” etc. We haven’t been able to play a game with that yet, as it took a while for the kids to sorta get the concept, and they had worksheets to do and such, but I still try to make every class fun.

And I do that by pretty much acting foolish.

Let me explain.

When I’m in class, I make over exaggerated gestures and mouth movements, I do sound effects, I bounce around class, I give off high fives, and anytime I have to stand still for a bit, like if I’m waiting for a student to answer a question I do a variety of jigs.

As odd as this sounds for a sensei (teacher) to do (and believe me, it IS odd. You definitely will not find any of the Japanese teachers jigging down the rows of students), I believe its actually really helpful. It makes the kids grin and laugh first of all, even if their kinda sorta laughing at me (though not in a harsh kind of way). But more importantly I think it relaxes them. JHS is a touch age for any kid in any country, but in Japan especially the kids are really really really afraid of answering something wrong and making themselves look foolish. They’re so afraid of it that they just won’t participate at all, so as to not make a mistake.

But if I’m already bouncing about and such well, there’s no way they could make a bigger fool out of themselves than I am already haha, and if I’m making a mistake or still doing jigs and dancing about even if they make a mistake, then it puts them more at ease. Both of my JTEs have already said (in slightly awed voices) that they can’t believe I can be so cheerful throughout the class, and how I’m always smiling at the students, and how much fun the students seem to be having in English class. There was one day where all the kids were really tired, as they had sports day practice all day yesterday (again I’ll explain sports day soon), and the JTE warned me before hand that the kids probably wouldn’t be very responsive. But by the time I was through with them, I had kids laughing and calling out responses and such, and at the end of the class my JTE was like “whoa.” More and more kids will say hello to me in the hallways, or give me enthusiastic waves, boys and girls, and several students when they walk by the teachers room, will jump up and down and wave to get my attention just to say hello.

The trade off though is that I’m less of a SENSEI sensei, and more of a….I dunno amusing distant realitve? Like I don’t have the authority over the students that other senseis have, and its shown in the way the kids treat me. Like the kids aren’t rude to me or anything of the sort, but they talk to me a little more as if they were taking to one of their own, rather than to a teacher. So any discipline power I might had (which I don't think would be much to begin with haha) goes down all the more.

I’ve been talking about this with some of the other JETs here, and we all have differnet opionions on things. H is about 10 years older than the rest of us, and her job before this was as an English teacher for high schoolers in the states. So she’s like a TEACHER teacher. She’s a bit frusterated with the system, as she doesn’t have her own class to just teach, and both she and B prefer to be thought of as TEACHER teachers, and I can see the value in that, but I dunno, I like my way. We’ve been told that the whole point of the JET program is less about really teaching English, and more about making foreign language, foreign customs, and foreigners less intimidating and all around scary, so that if someday in the future, these kids are presented with the opportunity to learn more about foreigness, they will not run screaming or give it the horse-to-tiger-stare, but will instead remember fondly back on their English class, and remember that it really wasn’t so bad, and perhaps give it a try.

That’s my two yen on the subject anway.

Moving on to the things that American students would never do, and to what is also a rather awkward time for me, lunch.

So all teachers will eat with the students. Homeroom teachers eat with their homeroom, teachers without a homeroom will eat with a class of their grade. While I sit with the 2nd year teachers, I’m not really of any grade, and so every day I eat lunch with a different class. I have to ask the homeroom teacher for permission first of course, but so far no one has said no.

Though I’ve also so far only asked my allies if I could eat lunch with their classes, but I’m fast running out of allies to ask and there are still classes I haven’t eaten lunch with yet, so I’m just gonna have to suck it up soon.

Anyway so here’s the thing about lunch. First off there isn’t like a big cafeteria room where the kdis go to eat lunch in, and lunch isn’t at different times depening on the grade. Lunch is the same time for everyone, and the classes eat separately, in their classroom, with the homeroom teacher. But here’s the kicker,

The kids take turns serving one another!

Elementary and JHS both, a small group of kids will run off to change into their aprons and to put on their little cloth masks over their mouths, and a hair net. Then they wheel in on a cart the pans or buckets or whatever that have the food in it into their classroom. Each kid will pick up a trey and form a little lunch line in the class room, as the students with the aprons will dole out an equal serving to their classmates, before serving themselves, taking off the apron and such, and sittingdown at their desk to eat.

….I can’t get over it. Like I try to picture that happening at an American school and just can’t. There would just be so much destruction, demise, and general hassel, it just wouldn’t work.

The food fights alone would be catastrophic.

Anyway the awkwardness for me comes in trying to make conversation. I dunno what it is, but kids that were all energectic and excited in the hallways or during class are suddenly very quiet and shy during lunch time. Maybe its because of the close proximity and the extended time that I’m there without a clear purpose, or maybe its just that thye only have 30 minutes to eat the food damn it, and they can’t wait time on the silly foreigner!

Either way they’re also always fisniehd way before me and I’m always the only one who ever has food left over lol.

They’ve also turned me into a milk hoarder. Like schools in America, every lunch comes a milk carton. But the thing is I don’t like straight milk. I’ve never liked straight milk. I blame my brother. And this milk isn’t only just staright up MILK, its also like whole thick straight from the freak’n cow milk. This junk is THICK. I can’t choke it down, no matter how thirsty I am. And there’s absolutely nothing that can be done with a half full carton of milk. The schools just aren’t equipped to deal with it. EVERYONE finishes their milk, and then folds it up and sticks it in this little box. When I asked what to do with a half full carton of milk, they looked at me the same way I look at a Calculus problem.

The brain just can’t handle it. It tries to comprehend, overloads, and shuts down. Finally the nurse was like “you can put your milk in the fridge and finish it later….” And I just said okay and then when no one was looking poured it out.

And don’t try to suggest bringing something else to drink. I asked once, and it was like I’d just announced the apocolyspse, closely followed by several asteroids striking within 5 feet around me.

So now its come to this. Every day I eat lunch, and just don’t drink anything. I never touch the milk. I turn in my tray and covertly slip the milk carton into my pocket. Then I walk down the hallway to the teacher’s fridge, and slip the milk inside, hoping someday someone will drink it.

There’s 6 milk cartons in that fridge right now. All of them mine.

But at anyrate…I think I’m gonna end the blog here for now. I know I still have a lot to talk about and explaining to do, but its late and I’m tired haha and tomorrow I have sports day, which I’ll explain about….later >.>;

And believe me its worth the wait. Sports Day is basically the reason why Japan was so sure they’d win WW2. Its why they don’t have to be worried about the fact that they don’t have a military. Sports day, is a concept that, to the unexpecting and unprepared gaijin, could probably cause internal brain damage and emotional tramatization.

And its also a great deal of fun!

Tis a good day

And it started yesterday evening when I COOKED MY OWN FOOD!

Oooh what now.

I finally decided that enough was enough. I was going to make a meal dangit! One that didn’t involve popping something frozen in the microwave oven and waiting five minutes. So I went to the supermarket and bought things that I have vauge memories of Mom using to make meals that didn’t come out of boxes. (There is a sad lack of box foods such as Craft Mac and Cheese in Japan.) This included items such as a red and yellow pepper, something that I think was garlic, something that I think was an onion, something that I think was small Japanese celery, and carrots. Then I bought some raw slices of thin beef, the sort that they use for yakiniku (like grilled meat), but can also be used in stir fry.

And then I returned home, convinced to make a stirfry esq meal, minus the rice, as I haven’t figured out how to use my rice cooker yet (don’t judge me!) and because I really need to really clean it.

But it wasn’t until I got home that I promptly realized I have no counter space.

Literally. I have no counter space. Here’s pictures of my downstairs to prove it:











((told you the bathroom and the toliet room are in awkward places. And that bathroom is cleaner now, though I think the tub is a lost cause))

I need to buy a little folding table for the kitchen or something, because I got nothing. As it was I have a little cutting board, that I had to put atop the microwave as the only available flat surface in the kitchen.

For the next hour or two, I chopped too many vegetables, and questioned (aloud incase the spiders wanted to listen in) whether or not the vegetables I bought where the vegetables I thoguth they were, how the hell I was supposed to chop them, and why garlic has to have that many layers of natural plastic surrounding it before one gets to the edible portion.

In the end, I dumped a bowl full of sliced up partial-mystery vegetables into my frying pan, added my beef, and slathered on soysauce for good measure. While it didn’t look like much, it actually tasted pretty good and I am quite proud of that feat.

I call my creation “It’s A Mystery To “Me”at”.

…Get it?

….It’s a mystery to me….It’s a mystery to MEAT……

<.< well I found it hilariously witty.

And I even had enough left over to bring in for lunch today, something that impressed all the teachers as I normally order lunch rather than bring my own in.

Anyway the next day as I got to school, I was greeted by a lot more students than I ususal am. Students who were practicing their clubs in the gym and saw me through the window called out to me and waved, students who were in the field doing their sports clubs called out to me and waved, students wandering the halls have been waving at me….And not just the girls either (though they are by far the majority) but even the boys! And not even just at school, when I’m wondering about the town or the island, and I often hear “Robin! Robin-sensei!” and find a kid or three waving frantically from a sidewalk or from the window of a car as it zooms past.

So one of my JTEs (Japanese Teacher of English), is the coach for the tennis club. I’m not sure if its just my school, or if its like this in all Japanese schools, bu all the teachers here have to be a coach to one of the clubs.

Even if they’ve never done that activity before in their life. My JTE is no exception. Apparently she’s a new teacher at this school (though she’s taught for a long time), and when she came here, she replaced the teacher that used to be the tennis coach. As all the rest of the clubs already had coaches, she had to be the tennis coach, despite the fact that she’s never played tennis before in her life.

Which perhaps explains why the girls in the tennis club didn’t seem fazed when I came to watch them, and told them I’ve never played tennis before. As it was, I only had plans to watch the tennis club practice. I hope to watch each of the clubs at least once to get to know the kids better during a time that’s fun for them, rather than just in a class room setting. But it wasn’t long before one of the second year students came up to me with a racket, and an offer to teach me how to use it.

How could I refuse? Despite that I was in my nice work clothes. I really need to just start bringing a pair of sports clothes to school and keeping it here, so that when I have time to visit a club, I can just change.

Anyway.

Now I don’t know if its from the hours of playing Wii sports, or if it was just from my natural insitict to keep any balls flying at me at whatever speed as far from my person as possible (Thanks to my father and brother for honing that instinct from all the afternoons of tort-I mean baseball and catch back in the day ;) ), but I was whacking those balls! The kids were quite impressed with my skillz, and kept asking if I was sure this was my first time!

…Granted I couldn’t *aim* my ball for beans, but I was hitting them! And hitting them well!

Oh and I should say, that the tennis club is only for girls, and that the baseball club is only for boys. Added to that, in Japan apparently there’s such a thing called “soft tennis”. Soft tennis is sorta like softball, in that its basically the same thing, only with a differnet ball and slightly different game rules. The balls they were using were not tennis balls, but soft rubber balls. I’d never hear of soft tennis before, but its popular in Japan apparently, and most of the schools have a soft tennis club, if not both a soft tennis and a regular tennis club. At my school there’s just a soft tennis club.

Anyway, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, High Fives are god’s gift to the ALT. They had me stand in line with them, while my JTE gently lobbed the balls, the next girl in line would go up, hit two of them, and then get to the back of the line. They’d (we’d) do this for back hand and front handed swings.

First was backhand though, and they showed me how to hold the rachet. Anyway, so I don’t know about anyone else, but when I played sports back in highschool, when we’d do these line up practice thigns, when a person would go to get back in line, the rest of the team would stick out their hands to high five them or whatever as a general “good job” or “don’t worry about it” group togetherness mentality. The sports clubs I’ve seen though, the kids don’t really do this.

But *I* do. And as I’ve said before, giving high fives, especially in different silly fasions, can bring smiles to the kids faces and lets them loosen up a little and have fun with the gaijin sensei.

And these tennis club girls took to high fiving like an obaachan to ninjutsu. It didn’t take long for them to *really* get into it, shouting “YAY” with each high five given or received, high fiving eachother, doing their own versions of high fiving, and rushing up to me to get high fives rather than the other way around. High fives turned what had been shy little junior high students to rambunctious fun loving kids. If I missed a ball or didn’t hit it very well, they’d say “No problem no problem” or “Don’t mind!” in english, before giving me an enthusiastic high five.

*sniffle* I was so proud.

There was one moment of intense confusion on my part, when, after doing the back hand swings for a while, the kids rushed up to me and said what sounded to ME like “Whore! Whore!” Until I realized they were trying to say “Forward” as in forward swing practice was next, and thus set aside my instant urge to monitor their television and reading materials, and/or throttle my predecessor for teaching them such a word.

Though it is definitely an odd experience to have a bunch of little junior high school girls in tennis outfits beaming up at you and calling “whore!” in their sweet little gumdrop voices.

These kids also got comfortable enough with me to call out to me and chat a bit, calling “Robin!” or “Robin-sensei!” or even getting creative and calling “Robbingu!” as in “robbing”.

Don’t ask me how they know the word “robbing”, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a vocabulary word in their text book or something. This is a textbook in which one of the English lessons is entitled (no joke) “Landmines and Children.”

…wtf mate.

ANYWAY lol the principal of my school also kept coming out to help coach the tennis club. My JTE told me that he used to play a long time ago (he’s a little old and pudgy now, but a nice guy!), and he often goes out to help out with the more coach aspects of life, since my JTE is just leaning the game herself. He’s actually really pretty good too. When he came out though the girls were a little more embarrassed about doing showing loud high fives though, so I taught them how to do a “air high five” which was shortened to “Air!”

You know the ones that you use to high five someone whose too far away to actually clap your hand with theirs, so you both just do the motion? They seemed to like that a lot too.

All in all it was a lot of fun. And I think word has been getting around that I’m going to the clubs, because the teacher who does the Kendo club invited me to come and watch that club sometime later too! She too is a club teacher whose never done the actual sport before lol so it should be interesting to say the least!

Lastly, I will HOPEFULLY be getting internet at my home today (cross your fingers for me!) And when I do, I’d best be seeing you people on skype!

Finally!

The long awaited weekend blog!

I’ll try to do all this in order but it was a long weekend so stuff might be a bit jumbled up.

So the first thing to realize is that all last weekend was the Obon Matsuri. This is a primarily Buddist themed festival that celebrates the dead and helps them to pass on to the next world, while simultaneously allowing the living to remember and let go of their loved ones. The time period has a lot of fire works, as well as people going to the family graves to clean them and make little offerings to their dead relatives with favorite foods or whatever.

So on one of these days, one of the towns that’s perhaps 30 or so (maybe a bit less?) minutes away by car was having this festival in the evening. I don’t have a car, and the busses don’t run that late, so I had resigned myself to not being able to go, when I caught B online (at work). She mentioned the festival and I mentioned how I would like to go but couldn’t. Turns out, her Japanese English Teacher is actually a diver (there is a point to this, bare with me). She is buddies with these other divers of the diving teaching/certification group called Nice Buddy (In English, its actively called “Nice Buddy”). Nice Buddy is run by a nice man and his wife, and it turns out his two daughters are students of mine. Anyway B’s JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) had invited her to go see the festival along with her diving buddies. (B had already met the people of Nice Buddy, cause she’s interested in learning how to dive, infact she’s already dived (dove?) twice). B asked her JTE if there was room for one more, and I ended up going with B and the divers. So B and her JTE pick me up from my apartment and we head over to Nice Buddy. It wasn’t until after the usual round of yoroshikus (ritual-esq pleased-to-meet-yous), that I realized we were going to the town with the festival (Wakamatsu I believe is the town’s name) via boat lol. The man who runs Nice Buddy’s boat to be exact. So we all pile into that (and by all I mean me and B, the man who runs Nice buddy, his wife and two kids, and I think maybe two other families with middle school age kids, and a couple of babies and a couple of other people? Haha so hard to keep track), and we boat on over to Wakamatsu. Apparently the festival was happening at a port, so this was actually faster than trying to have everyone drive there.

The boat ride was actually quite nice nad calm, and the scenery was beautiful. Some of the wives wanted to practice their English, and B and I had fun giving them different words to say. We found that “Flip flop” as in the sandal, is a good exercise for Japanese people to try and say to master new English sounds.

Anyway we get there, yada yada yada. I’m going to skip through the formalties and get right to the good stuff.

The festival.

As we step into festival groups, we find that there’s a live action show going on. B and I, intrigued, move closer.

And we couldn’t believe what we saw.



I think our reaction went something like this

o.o

o.0

>.>

<.<

Um.

Are those….Power Rangers??

We turned to our hosts who assured us that of course they WEREN’T Power Rangers!

Silly Americans, we’re on the Goto Islands!

These are GOTO Rangers!

Go go Goto Rangers!

We watched in awful amusement as these Goto Rangers (apparently the islands could only get two Goto Rangers) fought some Puddies.

You remember puddies, those people in grey suits who ran around making blubbery noises? Well it was basically the same thing, only it was men in black spandex with their underwhere outside their pants wearing puddy masks.

I was to stunned to take a picture of that. I apologize.

But I did take a couple of blurry pictures of the big enemy:




I apologize again for the quality of the pictures. My hand was shaking from the laughter that I was trying desperately to hold inside.

For the Goto Rangers were fighting Godzooky.

You remember Godzooky, from that old cartoon show that combined Godzilla with Scooby do? And Godzilla apparently had a nephew named Godzooky? Well even if you don’t remember, all you need to know is that they were fighting a guy in a Godzilla suit, a guy that was shorter than I am, in a suit that apparently didn’t have eye holes, because any time he needed to move somewhere, stage hands had to come out and lead him.

It made fighting the powe- excuse me, GOTO rangers rather difficult, as one might expect. Though from the bouncing about the Goto Rangers were doing, apparently Godzooky’s short little arms could pack a punch.

Eventually though, with enough cheers of “GANBARE!” (you can do it!) from the children in the audience, the Goto Rangers were able to vanquish their foe.

ACTION SHOT!



Once down, apparently Godzooky couldn’t get back up, and not just from the awesome power of Goto Rangers, but from the weight and unmovableability of the costume. After being dragged off to the side by the stage hands, Zookie’s feet would remain a constant scene in the background for the rest of the show.




Eventually the show ended and the people dissperesed, and I was left with the unsatisfied urge to take out a flute and try to summon green ranger’s zord. Or to poke the feet with a stick.

Once I was able to calm the sadistic nerd within me, we explored the rest of the festival, and B got to play the “scoop the fish into the bowl” game that we seen so often in anime depictions of festivals. She tried three times but only caught one fish, though it’s a beauty of a gold fish. Then the man running the game scooped up a little ugly fish and gave it to her as well, her “pity fish” as I like to call him. As far as I know, both fish remain alive today, and if she can keep them alive for several weeks, she may invest in a hamster.

Anyway after we explored we all trooped back to the boat to watch the fireworks. Now, I’m not gonna lie. The general thought process with myself and my brother is that if you see one set of fireworks, you’ve basically seen them all. But these were actually pretty good, the sort Dad would have especially enjoyed. There was hardly ever a moment where fireworks weren’t in the air, and there were a few I had never seen before, the sort that shoot up into the air then do like zigzags in the sky before exploding and such.

The real show however came afterward on the boat ride home. By then it was pitch black out, especially since we were in the middle of a bay, and there’s not exactly street lights in the water.

B and I were teaching my student English slang, when suddenly gasps came from the center of the boat, along with excited pointing overboard, and cries of “mite mite!” (look look!)

The water was glowing.

More specifically, the plankton within the water was glowing. As the boat plowed through it, something about the waves and the movement of the plankton in the water made them glow like neon green, making the water and the waves light up. And then, glancing up we could see THOUSANDS of stars, shining brightly without the hinderance of pollution or electricity. We even saw a couple of shooting stars.

It was quite a magical moment. I had no idea plankton could glow! I can only hope it’s a natural glowing, or one that will give me super cool mutant powers later. Either way.

So the day was exciting and fantastic. I was on a festival high when I got back to my apartment, and decided to relax with dinner and some movie watch'n. My predesessor has a tupperware full of bootleg movies and shows and one of them is Love Actually! So, happy as the clam I often was back in college I settled down with a oven made pizza, some cola, and one of my favorite movies.

Perhaps maybe 30 minutes before the end of the movie, I decided to pause and go ahead and clean up my dishes. I paused my movie and brought up itunes (any and all chores, no matter how small, but be accompanied by music) and turned around to face my kitchen.

Only to catch site of something large and black clinging to my otherwise pure white towel, hanging outside my ofuro (shower room) door.

I stared at the blotch. Stared long and hard as my stunned mind realized that the large blotch had several tendrils that looked alot like legs coming out of it.

And as (ever so ironically) Seal's "Bring it On" played in the background, I realized that my house had been infiltrated.

By Spizilla. For the first time.

Everything that happened next was something of a blur for me. I think I went into a state that was equal parts shock, panic, and self preservation. I grabbed my broom and spray, and then committed what has to be at the top of the list of Japanese Cardinal Sins.

I put on my hiking boots.

And wore them inside the house!

What happened next was an epic battle of me spraying and flailing with my broom. Then Spizilla, with skills that would make a ninja obaachan proud, zipped into my ofuro.

Panicing, I slammed the door shut, figuring I had locked Spizilla in a cage for the time being, and tried to gather my thoughts.

Perhaps I could just leave him in there...?

But no. I hadn't taken my shower yet (I realized with dawning horror) and there as no way I could get into bed without washing the days epic sweat off my body.

I had to go in.

And so I opened the door.

...Just in time to see Spizilla slip through the bathroom vent that I had absolutly NO IDEA was ALSO a window to the OUTSIDE!!

All my efforts up to this point, never opening my windows, keeping my doors locked and sealed, never leaving the front door open for longer than 3 seconds, spreading poisonous bug killing powder all around the apartment and on every window sill. I twas all for naught. Because all this time there was not just ONE way for them to get in but TWO!

Because my toliet room ALSO had one of these damned vent window things. (in japan, the room with the toliet and the room with the bath/shower are almost always seperate).

I believe I stared at the window-vent for several minutes, in dawning horror, (there might have been several curses involved as well), before I swept into action. Grabbing my spray, I sprayed the HELL out of that window, figuring that not even Spizilla would want to brave slipping through poionous vents.

But apparnelty Spizilla is either much braver, or much crazier than I first thought.

For it was just moments after I lowered my can that Spizilla leapted back through the vents, right before my vary eyes.

I don't know if my scream was from fear or fury. Either way I sprayed and smacked Spizilla like a fiend possesed, causing him to fall into my steel bathtub. Growing weaker from the poision (and realize that I'd already used at LEAST half a bottle on on him and he was still alive and kicking (litteraly)) he was unable to climb out of the tub.

Eventually, with more spray and more whaps, he finally curled up his legs and died.

Or at least mostly died. Everytime I tried to pick him up with the broom, his leg woudl twitch, and I would promptly drop him, for fear of epic Spizilla ninja skills.



Finally I just took my shower and washed him down the drain.

While I may have won this battle, the war continues on, as explained in my previous posts.

Fight the good fight!

Anyway moving on to other days.

So I talked about the social studies teacher here who speaks very good English and is a Shintoist right? Well after school he took me to see a festival-dance practice of 9th and 10th graders (junior high 3rd years and highschool 1st years), for obon. I got to watch the kids practice as well as meet the people who were kinda in charge of the obon festivities. One of them is a guy who I call NewYork-san, because that's how he introduced himself. (His real first/ last name starts with N and Y). He's a nice funny guy, and while he works at the hospitol, he also teaches the kids how to do the festival dance.

The dance is done in small groups of kids, each one with a little taiko (japanese drum) around their neck. They hit the drum and march about in ritualized steps and arm movements while shouting out the same basic thing over and over again. Then one of the older students or a teacher has a gong that they ring over and over, to keep time, and two other adults each carry a very tall (like 12 feet at least) flag with what I think was the town's name written on it.

Anyway I watched the rehearsal, and I promised to come and watch the real thing when they had it that weekend, on Saturday. Now I thought that their dancing was going to happen at night (I was told between 8 and 11) because most obon festivities happens at night.

So imagine my surprise when I wake up Saturday morning to the sound of gonging and drumming. Realizing my mistake, I rolled out of bed and quickly dawned my clothes and ate a quick breakfast, to go find the source of the gonging.

The kids had broken up into 3 or 4 differnt groups, each with 3 adults with them. Working as these separate groups, they troop around town doing the little dance, dressed in old timey uniforms.

The purpose of the dance is to entertain the dead who are still lingering in the area and to help calm them so that their spirits can reach the other world by the end of the Obon Matsuri.



While all the kids in this group are male girls are allowed to get involved. This year however only three girls from my school volunteered. Most kids don't really want to do this, because its hot and tiring haha, which is perfectly understandable. I was walking around with one of the groups for most of the day, and I was hot and tired by the end of it, and I was wearing summer clothes and sneakers! Not these robes and straw sandles.

After watching the above group, I decided to wander about the town to try and see each little group. Eventually I foudn them all, including the one group with the three girls from my school, and NewYork-san, who had done his best to explain things to me in the rehearsal (even though he only speaks the Goto-dialect of Japanese). While I didn't have to, I decided to stick with this group and wander around the town with them, doing a bit of off the cuff anthropology. They didn't mind. The adults, NewYork-san and the two other older men who were the flag carriors, seemed surprised and pleased that I was taking such an interest. THe kids were too hot, tired, and just a tad bit grumpy to care haha, but they also seemed to be having fun, and by the end of it I was entertaining them, just a bit, with my bumbling Japanese and interest in their dance.

It also really paid off to stick around, because they even let me participate! So as they wander around town, each group has a list of houses they are supposed to stop at and do the dance for (these are places that have had love ones they lost, I believe). Then the families there will donate a little bit of money (whatever they can afford). The houses are kinda spread out though, and hte group has to walk between them. Anyway for the last 3 or 4 houses I got to participate! One of the other adults had to run off someone, and he was a flag carrior. So he gave me the flag to carry. The children dance around the flag (and thus the flag carrier) so I was really and literally in the middle of things.

As we wandered around, I was really kinda getting into the beat, in that I was tapping out the gong's chimes against my leg or with my foot or whatever (one time I even pretended to have a gong and chime along with Newyork-san (the gong player for this group) which brought much amusement to the kids and the adults). So for the last big dance, Newyork-san was like "Here you go" and gave me the gong to play! I was rather nervous, because the gong pretty much tells the kids how to dance, but I did pretty well if I do say so myself, and it was alot of fun!

Alrighty almost done! Sunday night!

Newyork-san, impressed that I was so into learning more about Japanese culture, told me that Sunday night (and I confirmed repeatedly the "night" part) there was going to be another bon festival activity at the Buddhist Temple here. I told my neighboor about it, as well as a friend of hers from college who is visiting her. We'll call him NF (Neighbor's Friend). Anyway both of them were intrigued as well, so we headed on over there Sunday evening.

The temple was definitely alive with activity. First everyone trooped into the temple proper, were the buddhist monks there chanted a rather long prayer, and people could come up and breath in the incense and add an offering for a prayer of their own. We didn't go up there, but just watched from the back.

In the courtyard of the temple were I think six of what I'll call the Spirit-Boats (the boats that are built to put the spirits of the dead on, so they can be sent off into the water to the other world.) These spirit boats would be put onto carts, and then they would disperse to differnet parts of the town, stopping infront of whatever houses that wanted to give an offering.



N, NF, and I were just sorta trailing along as the boats were put into carts when NewYork-san found us! He was one of the people encharge of getting one of the boats through the town. He gave us each a paper lantern and lit the inside (everyone who was helping with a boat carried one of these lanterns), and then got us in to help pull one of the boats around! The boats had ropes attached to the front, where several people could grab with one hand and help to tug along the boat, while others pushed from the back or sides. The boat wasn't really that heavy, and there were maybe a dozen or so people helping so our help wasn't really that needed, but it was really cool to be part of this festival, and not just looking on. We helped to pull the boat all over our section of the town, before finally tugging it over to the harbor. Our work was done now, and we became spectators once again, watching as all the baots came together and were hoooked up together, and then hooked up to the back of a motor boat, to trail along behind it in the water.

On the motorboat were a few people (NewYork-san included) who made a big show of putting back and forth in the water, the spirit boats trailing behind, and setting off fireworks from the boat. Then, finally, the motor boat and the spirit boats started to head out, heading west (I think) to help the spirits on their way.

It was very fun, a mixture of solumn goodbyes and happy partying. And I feel like participating in those festivals helps us Jets to become more insiders, and not just outsiders looking in. Either way, it was a great weekend! (Despite that I don't have internet still *SOB*)


That's basically the end! Though here's some random pics for kicks:

My workplace. This is the teacher's office, all the desks. Can you guess which is mine?



And the upstairs of my apartment:






These pictures by the by were taken while I was still in the process of unpacking Its cleaner now, i swear!

I'll post the downstairs some other time.

Okay wait a little while longer...

...on the “what I did last weekend” blog post. My camera battery died and I had to charge it and thus didn’t get the chance to upload the pics.

But until then I’ll talk about my day!

So yesterday afternoon we (and by we I mean the four of us middle school Jets which are um, me, F, N, and B) were taken to meet the mayor, as well as made official introductions to the higher ranking members of the Board of Education. (The reason why H didn’t go is because as H does highschools, she technically works for a different Board of Education than those of us who do middle and elementary schools do. So even though we live on the same island, the four of us often do our work related stuff together). It was a little odd but not really nerve wracking, if that makes sense. Our supervisor introduced us, and we basically just bowed nad nodded our heads at the appropriate intervals.

The most fun though was the barbeque afterwards. Some of the elementary school teachers and some of the BoE (board of education members) threw us a little party with out door barbeque and informal chatting. Mostly in Japanese, but between the three of us who know some Japanese, we could pretty much figure it out. And some of the teachers knew English. It was pretty fun and a good way to take some of the formality out of our jobs. And it was in a really pretty spot, on a bay with clear water and tall mountains. So all in all good times.

The next day dawns.

And its *war* I tell you. WAR!

So today the plan was for our supervisor to pick three of us up, me, F, and N (all of us who came to Japan on Jet’s group B) to get our Alien Registration Cards and then our cell phones, as well as meet the elementary school principals. We’d do all that, go to lunch, then go back to our main middle schools to finish out the day. He was to pick us up at 820am so at around 810 or so I went outside to do my usual bug check.

And once again I found a Spizilla clone, waiting on the side of my apartment building (on the outside) just WAITING for a chance to skuttle inside.

I wasn’t going to play that game (and I think I said as much to the spider), and got my weapons, a can of insect repellant in one hand, my outdoor broom in another. With enough repellent and broom smacking, I was able to get the monster to fall off the side and into the insect murding powder I have spread around my apartment.

It didn’ stand a chance.

Once assured of my opponents demise, I continued my treck around the apartment. I went around the back, squinting up into corners, when I saw them.

My worst fears come to life.

SPIDER EGGS!

EGGS!

PLURAL!

Three of them, way up on the wall just outside my back door. To high for the spray, but NOT to high for the broom.

I started cursing, I’m not gonna lie, when I saw those ticking time bombs of doom, and began to beat at them with my broom, only to curse louder as, when I broke one open, thousands of tiny baby spiders began to jump for freedom.

Spray, brooms, and curses were flying free, when my neighbor suddenly gives a shout scream-curse as well. I look over and I see her back door is open and she’s flaiting about.

Spizilla clones had invaded her kitchen.

Clones.

Plural.

Two of them.

Armed with brooms and spray, we had at them! But the SOUSes (Spiders Of Unusual Size) held firm, diving beneath various kitchen utensils and appliances, and scuttling up into the cabinent shadows.

It was then that my supervisor arrived. It was time to go. But in the midst of battle, I had forgotton I needed to grab extra money for the cell phone buying. Taking a moment I went back to my apartment and went upstairs to my bedroom to find that a little tiny spider was having a grand old time bouncing up and down on my pillow.

WAR I tell you. WAR! As far as I’m concerned, that little bouncing spider was their acceptance of my declaration. And by golly I will destroy all these spiders if I have to bug bomb the island!

*clears throat* anyway.

We got our alien registration cards no problem, then it was off to get our cell phones. Now only myself and N were getting our cell phones today. F was getting a deal with her cell phone from a nieghboor, and thus those details were to be hammered out this weekend.

But of course the cell phone company’s (Docomo’s) represenatives speak only Japanese.

And my supervisor speaks very little English.

And N speaks no Japanese.

Thus it was up to me to translate everything the cell phone clerk was saying into English so that N could figure out the plan/ phone she wanted to get.

<.<;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

It took about an hour and a half, no joke. And there was a lot of me asking them to repeat, a lot of me asking for confirmation, and a lot of me staring blankly at the clerk, but eventually we figured *something* out. We both now have cell phones (ones that were on sale. Yay cheap!) and thus the ability to contact eachother and the outside world.

And it being Japan, even the cheap cell phnes are uber, with the ability to do music, connect to the internet, do email, and even watch tv!

And it being *me* in Japan of course, the phone doesn’t get tv on the island lol. But the representative assured us that if we ever made it off this little island and back onto the main islands of Japan, we’d be able to watch tv.

Whoopdedoo.

We also had to get a news feed on our cell phones, a continuous news scroll along the bottom of the standby screen. But its all in Japanese. I’m still not sure why we had to get this news feed, but everyone was insistant on that, along with much apologies that we couldn’t read it lol.

But at least I have a cell phone, and the cell phone is in English to boot, so alls well that ends well.

Dad later during the weekly call I’ll give you all the little details about my cell phone plan and such ;) .

After that it was off to the BoE to meet all the principals. Now before our arrival at the BoE, we were under the impression that we’d be going to our elementary schools to visit and meet the staff. Both myself and F, who have the best Japanese understanding, were under this impression, and B, who’s just about as good, had no idea anything was even going on today until someone arrived at her school to bring her to the BoE.

Imagine our surprise when we get there and are ushered into a conference room with a little over 20 old Japanese men (and one old Japanese woman) staring at us. They turned out to be our principals, and we had a formal introduction to them, both with our supervisor introducing us and then us introducing ourselves in Japanese.

Which really was a little pointless since in our supervisor’s introduction, he basically said everything there was to say about each of us.

But what can ya do.

Now I’m back at my school though, waiting out the rest of the day until I get to go home.

Oh! One other bit of great news! So H (the highschool JET) finally got her car. She came to visit me a day or two ago, and I was talking to her about how I don’t have a bike and will have to buy one. And she’s going to give me the bike her predecessor left her! It’s a nice bike, like a sports bike. I’ll still have to buy a helmet/lock/whatever for it, but if its in pretty good shape and usable I won’t have to slap down the 400+ dollars to get a new bike. Pretty exciting stuff.