Coverage Days: Tuesday, November 17th
Schools Visited: ES2, ES1ASP
As I write this, my little sister is on her way to the local United States Air Force recruiting station to file her enlistment papers. I found out this news just an hour ago as she caught me on Facebook chat (and subsequently ruined my best game of Bejeweled Blitz in weeks). Military service has been somewhat of a tradition in my family... though I never imagined my imouto-chan would be the one to carry it on for our generation. She might actually be the first female in our clan to step up. But yeah, all my love and support to you, Kelly. Basic Training starts in Texas in December. Make us proud!
It's a big step to join the military of your respective country, just as much as it is to decide to become a teacher in a foreign land. That's what I decided to do for myself before I left Boston USA to come to Okayama Japan in August 2008, and that endeavor is what this blog serial has been about, so let's get to discussing another "typical" day in the life of an American trying his best everyday to improve the lives of his 330 students... at the cost of risking his own sanity.
Teaching, if you would believe, is peaceful. It's an enjoyable job with way more perks than setbacks. Well, assuming you look at the situation from a bright point-of-view. However, there are certain situations that get the butterflies in your stomach all worked up. Today, at ES2, the butterflies were definitely active... and someone gave them spears and harpoons.
I knew from last week as I was leaving ES2 that this week there would be a "Board of Education Inspection." Okay, well, whatever. No big deal to me since I had experienced one of these inspections at ES3 just earlier this month, and the only time I ever saw the inspection team was for a whole 5 minutes during the 5th-grade class. I went to school this morning not worried about a thing, since I was operating on the assumption that the experience would just be the same. I mean, why would they care so much about English lessons? The prinicipals and INTERAC trainers can handle the English issues, right?
yeeeaaahhnnnooooo...
I walked into the school building and first noticed a stantion sign in the lobby with a schedule on it. I only looked at it briefly, but then got uber curious about it shortly after, mostly because it just had a list of periods with a certain class assigned to each. Then I wondered, "hmmm, this looks like the schedule for what the inspectors will be observing. Cool, I can see right away that I'll be in the clear just by comparing it to my schedule."
"Let's see... I have the 1st/2nd-grade in the 2nd-period... and they'll be inspecting... the... uhhhh... 1st/2nd-grade in the 2nd-period...
okay, one class, I can handle that...
Next is the 3rd/4th-graders in the 3rd-period.... which is... uhhh... the same as the inspection team...
Ummm, okay... well, don't tell me that that... they will... ummmm.... oh crap... 5th/6th-period in the 4th-period. WTH?"
Okay, so then I was thinking that it was just a list of special classes that maybe the inspectors would be interested in... or possibly what they need to avoid. I went to find the kouchou-sensei to ask him about it. Didn't take long to find him in the teachers' room, where I instantly asked him what was the deal with the English schedule listed out front. All the teachers were in the room and heard him explain to me that today wasn't the SCHOOL inspection, but rather the ENGLISH inspection.
gah!!
Well, no big deal, I suppose. I have confidence in my abilities and even though this is the school that I have the weakest relationship with, I wasn't intimidated by the challenge. I love English-time with the kids and the chance to show-off in front of the big-wigs was a welcome opportunity for me. And best of all, working with the 1st/2nd-graders would be the best kick-off to the event. All I need to start my day is some excited attention from Ready!Go!-chan... the biggest Xeno-supporter in the school.
So... yeah... Ready!Go!-chan... let's have English-time together...
2nd-period... whenever you're ready...
Ready!Go!-chan... let's... you know... do that thing where we have excited classes... together...
hmmmm... that's funny. Usually when I say the name of a Xeno Ranger, their name highlights in bold. When I say "Ready!Go!-chan," nothing happens. Oh wait... it only happens when the student mentioned actually DOES something. Wait... does this mean that Ready!Go!-chan was absent today??
Ugh... you're kidding me!! The one day that I really need her over-the-top wackiness is the one day that she's not even here!!!!!!
O______O!!!! crap
Well, it's not like the other kids don't love English-time, but usually she's the one to set the pace. The other teachers have a wicked hard time controlling her, since she leaps from her seat all the time ad usually just does whatever she wants. But at least with me, she's usually rushing up to the front to be at my side, which is fine with me since she'll at least listen to me. It's actually an amazing thing to watch her scowl or protest to her homeroom teacher or even the principal, yet with just one request, I can get her to sit down calmly. I would have liked the inspectors to have seen that.
Sigh, well, oh well... I can make do with the rest of the class. There was one woman and two men sitting in on our lesson. The kouchou-sensei and kyoto-sensei were also there, but each just to check-up to make sure all was well. The lesson started with great energy. Luckily we were still going over RPS123, so I was getting the kids all fired up with my sumo-ninja challenges. The inspectors found it to be quite interesting, as did the teacher. And of course the kids loved it.
The Gods were being kind to me this morning by giving the kids super amazing abilities to listen to me without struggle. We had been doing this game as part of the RPS123 lesson where they arrange their desks into two rows facing eachother. Since this class is too small for Janken-densha, I have them face-off with the student across from them. After each round, the winners raise their hand and then I award them points based on which side they're sitting on. First team to 20 points wins. It's only a quick game, especially now that we're in the review-phase, but I must have amazed a few observers when I said to the kids, "we're going to play the game from last week. Make two teams across from eachother. Please move your desks." I was anticipating a few of them to be like "ehhh? wakarimasen!", but was blown apart when they all stood up instantly and did exactly as I asked them.
That wouldn't be the only time. Their "stand up" and "sit down" commands were flawless... though I'm not surprised by that since we do it all the time. I did get them to sing "The 10 Steps" for the first time and do the hand-motions with little preparation. Counting to 20 was a bit of a challenge, as usually the loudest kids are also the ones who are not always right. What I usually do when reviewing vocabulary is I write the words/symbols on the board, then after we're done, I'll have them review one last time as I erase each one. As I was going down the line, they got through "11" easily, but got messy around 12/13/14. We were going slow through the list, where mostly it was half-correct, half-wrong answers being shouted. When we got to "18", they were all mostly wrong... and to express my concern, instead of erasing the number, I slumped straight down to the floor...
brushing the eraser down the length of the chalkboard as I fell. Heehee... standard slapstick, something I've done a dozen times before. What's worthy of note was that the inspectors all found it pretty funny. Even from my crouched down position on the floor, I could hear them all chuckling loudly while trying their hardest not to interrupt the lesson, heehee.
The amazement continues with the target of today's lesson: food. We covered the food vocabulary last week, and the kids really enjoyed the activities we did. What was amazing, even to me and their HRT, was that the kids could remember most of the words, even WITHOUT the flashcards. They simply remembered what was next based on the order, which really really impressed the inspectors. I can't understand much Japanese, but I could hear them whispering in amazement as we continued through the lesson. And I thought the "do you like ~?" portion was going to be tough, but the kids really enjoyed the challenge. The interview game I arranged for them was also a big hit. I had always thought this activity would be hardest for 1st/2nd-graders, but it's usually the younger groups who enjoy it most. Go figure.
I really can't say what the reason is, but apparently seeing the first lesson was enough for the inspection team. If I wanted to be realistic, then I'd assume it was all they really planned for. If I wanted to be optimistic (boastful), then I could assume that they were so mightily impressed with my lesson that they saw all that they needed to see. I could also be pessimistic/paranoid and assume that they hated the lesson so much that they didn't want to bother with the rest, but this is doubtful based on how well the lesson went, plus the fact that the kyoto-sensei and kouchou-sensei both told me after that everything went well.
It's probably all for the better that they didn't see the other two classes, mostly because the kids were behaving terribly today. I blame it on the crappy weather keeping them indoors. Not being able to run around bottled up all their energy. Well, actually, they weren't being "bad," per se, but rather they were being noisy. But I can't even get mad because they were participating in the group activity I gave them... just louder than I had preferred. Oh well, whatever. We got through the lesson plans on-schedule and the information seemed to stick quite well. Even in a loud, disorderly class, the key to success is keeping your cool and just accepting that the course isn't always going to go as planned.
Today, for some reason, I got to leave at 2:30pm. I guess there was some special meeting going on or something, and all the kids would be leaving early. I called INTERAC to let them know, and they confirmed with the principals that I was indeed free to take off an hour (really 2.5 hours) earlier than usual. Hmmmm... I'm free early on a Tuesday afternoon? What should I do?
I know... I can finally join in on a Soccer Club meeting at ES1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited!!!
Oh wait... it's raining. Crud.
I went to the school anyway since it's not always guarenteed that it would be cancelled. They've played in the rain before... and even on cold days like it was today. Actually, it wasn't even raining that hard. Well, that's what I thought anyway, but apparently 4-sensei had a different opinion. All the kids were kept inside during after-school time today. Bummer.
Well, I can still have new kinds of fun with the students here. They were all amassed in the multi-purpose room playing various Japanese board games. I found one group playing some kind of "Connect Four" game using black and white stones on a flat grid table. Well, really it was "Connect Five," but same rules. I played this game with a group of boys for about 30 minutes. Eventually I got tired of it, as did they, evidenced by them starting to shoot the stones at kids playing other games. My cue to leave, haha.
I made it outside where I found PenguinDance-sensei talking to a bunch of students who were getting ready for dismissal time. Actually, a lot of the kids were from the junior high school. Oh yeah, today was "workplace observation day" for the 8th-graders. Many of the chugakkusei were working in different locations around the village, including the elementary school. I saw Tenisu-chan coming up the driveway around this time, so I asked her where she had been working today. She told me she was assigned to the local supermarket, then proceeded to mimic the motion of scanning items through the register... followed by random button pushing... then all sorts of bells and buzzers going off... followed by her tearing her hair out in frustration...
... to which I added in the register exploding at the end.
She nodded in agreement. I think she's been traumatized by all cash registers for the rest of her life.
A few of the Soft-Tennis Club girls were around, which was good 'cause they got to see how well I interact with the elementary school kids, particularly Time-chan. She's always following me around, telling me random things or teaching me random games. Today was no different, but I have other stories I want to spend time discussing.
I made my way over to the jidoukan around 4:45pm just to drop in on the teacher there to make sure everything was alright. When I arrived, I discovered that the "new" assistant teacher started working there. Well, can't say he was "new" since he actually works in the kindergarten section of the building. They just switched him over to afternoon-duty with the elementary school kids. I was introduced to him and made a little small-talk. Since I came in late, I didn't have much time to interact with the kids, so I couldn't show off my relationship with the students in this group. I did fit in some tag with Semi-chan and a group of 1st-grade boys. Oh, but I did tell him about Chizuru-burger's nickname... which of course prompted the little darling to come over and try to whack me. Haha, so cute.
The last story of the day is the basis of the wonderful entry title. As I was passing by the elementary school on my way to my car, I saw that there were some students in the gymnasium. I wasn't sure what was going on in there, but since I had to be somewhere at 6pm and it was only 5pm at the time, I decided I might as well drop in to kill some time. As I walked into the lobby, before I could even get the door open, I heard someone excitedly yell my name. When I opened the door, there were two 3rd-grade students and one parent inside. As you can probably guess, one of the students was Cuteness-chan... and yes, she was the one who yelled my name.
And what was going on in the gym on a Tuesday evening?
Kendo practice!
Sweet. I must admit that I haven't been to Kendo in a while. I've gone a few times over the months, but rarely do I put it in the blog since interesting stories never come from it. The students usually just do the same routines over and over and over. But now that I see that the Ball of Cuteness is now a Kendo Warrior, it might be worthwhile to see what goes on later in the practices. Plus, there is a small grouping of boys who I don't see too often that I really want to add to my "positive approval" list... including the trouble-maker boy in the 4th-grade. Of course, I know I have their favor already since they all wanted to play with me once I entered the gym (they were down on the far end), but I should strive to solidify all my relationships.
I wanted to play with them (they were playing "keep away" with a volleyball), but Cuteness-chan was in ultra-serious mode... plus she was suiting up her uniform. She asked me to tie her shield (I'm not good with the terminology here), but it was a challenge since she wanted it super-tight, but not with a bow tied impossible to un-do. I give whole-hearted props to anyone who could tie those things on their own. No doubt there is some super-special way of doing it, but damned if I could figure it out. I eventually just pulled it tight, then gripped the part where the strings crossed, then had Cuteness-chan actually tie them.
And tying Kendo equipment isn't the only thing we did. If you can remember waaaaay back in the day, her charm point is showing off her English skills. Since we've had a grand total of maybe 14 minutes of outside-classroom time together this semester, she's been dying for some opportunities to demonstrate her abilities. Instantly she started quizzing her classmate standing nearby on the Months of the Year. Then we moved on to Days of the Week. Man, oh man, there was cuteness, but no words can do justice. She does these weird shrugging/head-tilting movements when she doesn't know the answer, as to say, "yeah, I'm blanking out here, but I'm just so damn cute that it doesn't even really matter, now does it?"
oh, the good ol' days. She also wanted to know what all the other classes were studying, particularly the 4th-graders. I think she's trying to get a sneak-peek at what's coming next year. I told her that 3rd- and 4th-graders essentially get the same lessons, just slightly increased vocabulary. What blew her away was the fact that in my other two elementary schools, the 3rd-graders and the 4th-graders have English-time together. Xeno-sensei is just full of all sorts of interesting tidbits.
It's waaaay past my bedtime and with the temperatures dropping even INside my apartment, I need to hop into bed and go into hibernation mode. It's not just for PCs.
Finally, AFA 09 will be held in Singapore again this weekend on 21st and 22nd November 2009. I will also be covering this event for 2 days, together with the concert at the end of each days (No pictures and videos for the concert though >_>)
Anyways, stay tuned as I will bring you report of this event =)
Coverage Days: Sunday, November 15th and Monday, November 16th 2009
Schools Visited: JHS
Entry #265
Welcome to my blog, XENO said with hospitable warmth. There will be a lot of fun things to discuss in this installment, XENO said slight enthusiasm. The annual Autumn Festival that I enjoy so much was held this past weekend, XENO said with much fondness in his voice. Plenty of the Xeno Rangers were present, XENO said cherished emotion. Plus, I got a special role in this year's event, XENO boasted with pride. Also, a new-addition has been made to the Xeno Fanclub, XENO happily reported.
Wait, why am I talking like a MISAKA-sister from To Aru Majustu no Index, XENO wondered. It's getting rather annoying, XENO said with an aggitated voice.
Stop that, XENO cried at the omnipresent phenomenon!
Really, cut it out!, XENO shouted.
I'm going to punch you, XENO said while shaking a fist at his computer monitor.
I'm serious, you only get one more warning, XENO threatened.
That's it!!!, XENO exclaimed as he punched his com..........
.....
::CONNECTION LOST, XENOCRISIS0153 LOGGED OFF @ 18:35::
::CONNECTION ESTABLISHED, XENOCRISIS0153 LOGGED ON FROM NEW LOCATION @ 18:45::
Dammit, now I need to replace my laptop. Heh heh... well, at least the MISAKA-type talking is over. Now I can resume this entry as normal. I'll TRY to keep it short by mostly sticking to what was interesting, but then again, I've said that before, and we all know how that usually turns out.
As I mentioned earlier, this weekend was the annual festival in the center of my teaching village. I'm not sure what it's called exactly, but it's the event when all the villagers go to their local shrine, then carry the Mikoshi (God House) around the area like a parade float. The idea is that this is the local deity's one chance to actually leave the shrine (well, aside from the big annual God Meeting held at Izumo Taisha in Izumo City, Tottori Prefecture (fans of Kamichu! should be familiar with this)). So yeah, the God gets touted around the village in a giant golden dollhouse to bless the households, shops, farms, schools, etc within its territory. There is dancing and sorts for different age-groups.
I had gone last year when I was still relatively new to the community, and at that time, I was still a stranger amoung those who lived here. Only the Ball of Cuteness really had any ties to me at that point, which was more than enough back then. Now that I'm a celebrity amoungst the populace, it was a completely different experience for me. Immediately upon arriving at the parking lot where the elementary school kids were rehearsing their dance, I was greeted with long-distance waves and peace-signs. Cutest, however, were the three kindergarten girls who were free to run over to me and hang from my arms as their older siblings continued dancing. Having the parents around to witness how freely the children can interact with me demonstrates how trusted a person I must be... well, from a child's eyes, at least, haha.
The schedule this year was slightly off from last year. Last year, the kids went up to the shrine immediately at 10am (the time I arrived both years), however, this year they did a bit of "parading" around first, THEN went to the shrine. Since they were traveling by bus at first, I couldn't see where they were going, so I went to the shrine first, only to realize the new schedule set-up about 20 minutes later. I missed the first leg of the parade, but finally caught up just as they were finishing the first half. Hardly exciting, so fast-forward to when we finally headed over to the shrine.
It's at the top of a steep hill. The junior high school group was traveling in a convoy of pick-up trucks, but the elementary school group was using a bus. Only problem was that the bus wouldn't fit onto the access-road, so the kids were forced to run to catch up to the others. I was already walking up the access road when I noticed this, so I was basically down-stream as the flash-flood of kids came rushing my way. Leading the pack were Time-chan and Cuteness-chan... though poor little Cuteness-chan was getting way ahead of herself and ended up tripping as she was making a dash. When she finally approached me, I checked her hands to make sure she was alright.
No marks, no cuts, no blood... though her hands were mysteriously a shade of green, which I would have thought was a grass-stain, only she fell on concrete. Well, she's always been tough, so I guess it wasn't a surprise to see her shake it off. She did insist on holding my hand as we went up the steep incline, presumedly so I she could save energy by my doing most of the heavy step-climbing. And since I have two hands, Time-chan got dibs on the other hand. And no secret, Japan is home to plenty of ridiculously steep staircases. I wouldn't mind them so much, except the stairs are never even (or straight, for that matter), so it's very hard to adjust, XENO said while whining like a little bitch.
what the...!?!? Don't make me punch you again.
Anyway, last year being the new guy, I was strictly an observer. This year, however, I was given a very special bonus role. When the children dance, they dance in a giant oval. Marking the far ends of the oval are two poles consisting of a red-and-white striped rod with some kind of orament on the top. There are also long red-and-white streamers hanging from the top to give it more life and vibrancy during the ceremony. My job this year was to hold up one of the poles and bob it up-and-down and around to the beat of the music. I'm not sure if there was a specific way of doing it, as I was just told by Silent-chan's mother to "hold... up and down." Well, whatever gets the streamers fluttering about... I just copied what the guy on the far end across from me was doing.
The weather was gorgeous this year, as opposed to last year's gloomy skies. The temperatures were cool, and though there were thick clouds, there were enough gaps to let the sunlight through every once in a while. Not a drop of rain is the most important part. I stayed until 12:45pm this year, which is just about when everything was done. Well, the junior high school group was still around, but they were going on a different route. I tried to find out where they were when I left the elementary group, but the directions I was given didn't lead me to any dancing students. I was having lunch with Realtor-san at 1pm, so regrettably, I couldn't afford to spend any more time looking around.
Quick story about Realtor-san... I taught him the phrase "bros before ho's". Heeheeheehee... enough said on that matter, I think.
Monday at the junior high school was full of interesting stories. My day didn't really start until after lunch, as my first four periods of the day were spent doing prep work... no, wait, except 2nd-period where I helped with the 8th-grade class, but by "help", it means all I did was sit behind the video camera tripod and record their speeches (given in Japanese). I couldn't understand what was happening or what the deal was, but it was a serious-tone event, so nothing exciting. My first period was a waste because A-sensei didn't prepare any assignments for me by then, so I just used the time to clean off the stack of mystery-papers that amassed on the back corner of my desk.
English Club was only attended by two members: Blue-chan and Taisou-san. We were playing BINGO again, but since these two want all the stickers for themselves, they don't recruit others to come join. In fact, I have reason to believe that they actually tell their classmates NOT to come, as a way of sealing their victory.
Interested Classmate: "I think I'll join the English Club meeting today. Will you be doing anything fun?"
Blue-chan: "oh, no... just serious work. This week is... uhhhh... translating the ingredients in toothpaste."
Interested Classmate: "Oh, I'm thinking of studying dental hygiene. That might be interesting to me."
Taisou-san: "wait, no, not toothpaste... ummmm... she means... ummmm... chicken nuggets. Yeah, chicken nuggets ingredients."
Interested Classmate: "ooh, I love McDonald's. It might be good for me to know what's inside the food I eat."
Blue-chan: "ah, yeah, well... the way we do it... it's ummmm... not fun, not fun at all."
Interested Classmate: "maybe we can find a way to make it fun."
Taisou-san: "NOT FUN!!!"
Blue-chan: "TOP SECRET NOT FUN!!"
Interested Classmate: "what's top secret?"
Taisou-san: "nothing... nevermind... ummmm... actually, yeah, come join us. We'll be meeting at our usual place on the roof of the gymnasium."
Blue-chan: (to Taisou-san) "that's not where we mee... OWWW!!!"
Taisou-san: (pinching Blue-chan under the table, whispering) "shuuuut up"
Interested Classmate: o_____o;
I arrived at the 9th-graders' classroom about 5 minutes before the 5th-period English lesson was to start. I used this extra time to rush over to Omiyage-san to find out how her interview test went. She just kinda slinked into the corner and told me "no good." I asked her why, but she shyly told me "not loud voice." Gah, the challenge lives on. I've heard her talk loud before, so I know she's capable of it. It's just a matter of combining the moments of "when she does it" with "when she NEEDS to do." Of course, she could just be modest. We don't know if she actually passed or not. Hopefully I'll find out on Friday.
When A-sensei and T-sensei entered the room, we began the lesson. The boys were horsing around more than usual today, so they were all extra energetic at the start of the period, even still punching eachother in the shoulders as we all stood at attention. The normal greeting from the students is to address the three of us teachers in order of importance, bottom to top, so it's normally:
"Good afternoon, T-sensei, Xeno-sensei, A-sensei"
... only today, one of the boys up front decided that he wants to re-rank us to fit his personal views, and by this I mean, he wants to put me at the top. I kinda heard it slightly, but since he was closer to A-sensei, A-sensei noticed it fully. And I know he noticed it since he brought it to the boy's attention by pretending to be angry about this usurption (yeah, I'm making up words again, I think). And why is this boy putting me up higher? Well, it's all a part of my mission to gain 100%-approval amongst all my students. Last Friday was when we had free-talk group time, and during the "my favorite teacher is ~" segment, he was one of the boys to pick me as his favorite. Kind of impeccable timing since this would become the first time I could finally solidify the name-to-face connection in my mind, just in time to come in extremely handy for me.
And what do I mean by that? Well, on Saturday, I had made a daytrip for myself to Kurashiki to take some photos in the Bikan Historical District since the weather was so nice. It's not uncommon to see students in Kurashiki since it's a big local attraction, nor is it uncommon to see them in Takahashi since, you know, that's where we all live. In-between these two cities, however, is a city called Soja City. It's essentially my student-free "safe zone," since I wouldn't think the students would have much reason to go there.
I thought wrong.
I needed to make a potty-stop on the ride home, so I pulled into the big department store in the center of town here. I had never been to this store before, despite passing it so many times. I decided that since I was there, I might as well check it out.
Clothes... check
Grocery section... check
Cute girls at the ice cream shop... check
Bookstore with decent manga section... check
... and that's where I saw him. I swear, my "Internal Student Proximity Alert System" has been upgraded, because seriously, I only saw this boy out of the corner of my eye. At no point did I ever look directly at him, and yet, as I was continually browsing, I thought to myself, "I think I just saw that boy from my sannensei class... but we're nowhere near home, so it's not even possible." The boy I saw had left the area to go pay for his purchases, which was when I made my decision to head off. As I was stepping out of the store, I thought I had heard my name. Still believing it wasn't possible, I didn't even flinch... until I heard it again. I turned to see the boy rushing up to me to say hi. We talked for about 5 minutes, but long story short, I asked him what he bought ("Natsu no Arashi" and "Beezelbub"), then we parted.
I guess our encounter had an effect on him since he was in ultra "xeno is the coolest guy on the planet"-mode all day today. And if it that wasn't enough, then possibly what I had made for the class might have put him over the edge...
Today's in-class assignment was to make a 2-person dialogue skit based off the starter, "why don't we ~?" I used the example, "why don't we go to the AEON Mall?" for the worksheet I made. Though my example skit was perfectly done, my worksheet lacked life. A-sensei suggested that I add more interesting points to it, and well, what is more interesting that popular anime? I didn't have to think long before the idea of Pikachu came into my mind... but Pikachu, while recognizable and lovable the world over, is all played-out. What's new? What's hip? What's popular?
Oh, I know... To Aru Kagaku no Railgun has been an interesting project lately. I'm still stuck back in the To Aru Majustu no Index original (quckly caught up to ep #23 last night), but I know plenty about Railgun's main character, Mikoto Misaka, from her role in Index... and whatdayaknow!?, she actually has something in common with Pikachu...
they both spark electricity!!!
hahahahahahahha... too perfect!!! 5 minutes of google image-searching later and I had my masterpiece. I showed A-sensei my finished project, but he was just like, "bah, anime again? well, whatever," but little did he know was that THIS one was going to be a big hit. It was so funny to watch the reactions of the students as the worksheets were handed out. We spilt the pile into two, then from each end of the front row, the papers go across the front, spreading backwards as each front-row leader passes back the stack for their row. I watched as a wave of smiles and laughs rippled across the room. I saw kids burst into laughter, then quickly show their neighbors while pointing excitedly. Even the girls were doing it, though I'm not sure if it was because of Mikoto or Pikachu. Either way, it took about 3 minutes before the class calmed down from the initial reaction. They were talking to eachother and A-sensei about it all in Japanese, and it wasn't until they later on that I found out that it was all good things.
Even Dangerous-san got some enjoyment out of it, as she was working with the class' slow-student (the one who is always energetic and talkative in a polite, friendly way, but is just terrible at English). He just happens to be a big fan of the Index-universe, as I learned from him mimicking "Imagine Breaker" a few weeks ago. Anyway, as I passed their discussion, he called me over to tell me that Mikoto's coin-lightning attack is cool, to which I responded by pointing at the picture and saying "she's dangerous!!!". This prompted Dangerous-san to do her usual bit and exclaim "dangerous!! she's dangerous!!"
So, suffice to say, Mikoto won over quite a crowd. How about poor ole' Pikachu? Oh... there would be comedy there. I had assigned Pikachu to the "A" script and Mikoto to the "B" script. When A-sensei and I were doing our example presentation, I was given Pikachu's part. Together we read through the conversation, all the while the students repeating after us each time. When I got to my final line, I changed it up.
On the paper: "Great. And then we can see a movie at the theater."
Out of my mouth: "Pika Pika Pi-Pikachu!!"
From the kids: hahahahahahahhaha
Haha... I broke a cardinal rule of stand-up comedy, which is "never laugh at your own jokes," but considering the perfect timing and delivery, plus the befuddled and amused reaction of the crowd, I needed just an extra 10 seconds to regain myself. Well, I kinda sputtered my way through the final line of dialogue... eventually.
The 6th-period with the 8th-graders went alright. Plenty of small interactions, particularly with DollDream-chan, who was sitting in the front row. She was in a wicked good mood, which I could only enjoy to a certain point. She was telling me something, but it was in rapid-fire Japanese, so I haven't the slightest idea what it was about. Oh well, she's happy, guess that's all I need to know.
The end of classes was marked by a fire drill. Nothing worth getting much into. It was very orderly... that's all.
During cleaning time, I saw that two key characters were assigned to the teachers' room today: Blue-chan and that 9th-grade boy who's suddenly started talking to me. I called the boy over to my desk to show him the worksheet we used in class and I asked him if he knew who Mikoto Misaka was. He said he knew her from the new spin-off series. I asked him if he was watching it, but I can't remember his answer. I'm pretty sure he said he was. I used this moment to suggest to him a website where anime is streamed with English subtitles (no, I'm not turning my back to A-source... I just can't DL torrents from my current location). He was excited over the idea of learning English while watching anime, but then he hit me with...
"I don't have a PC."
o_____o; wha?
I was a little surprised as I stood there trying to think of a follow-up, but all I could get out of it was a set-up for a joke. I motioned toward my school computer on my desk and said to him, "oh, you can have mine, haha." He laughed, but then I topped myself again. I told him, " no no, wait... you can have A-sensei's computer," as I pretended to be reaching for the computer on the desk next to mine. Oh, I am a funny guy. Although, only now do I realize the best real suggestion: watch it over a friend's house. Oh well, maybe he'll figure it out on his own.
At that moment, it kinda turned to awkward silence. But I was saved. Whenever a certain girl is in the room, there is never silence. Not more than 5 seconds went by before Blue-chan was shouting for my attention from across the way. Earlier in the day I promised her that I would help her write her speech for the English Speech Contest. She was trying to figure out how to ask me what time we would work until in English, but she was getting caught up in her translation. Even with the help of either the school nurse or school secretary (I forget who it was), she wasn't making any progress. Luckily I knew at least that much Japanese, so I didn't need the translation.
Blue-chan: "what time... uhhhhh... nan jikan made? Finished? What time finished contest?"
me: "hmmmm"
Blue-chan: "5?"
me: "hmmmmm... 8"
Blue-chan: "ehhhhhhhh!?!?!"
me: (knowing she was thinking that that's waaay too late) "not 8? hai, okay fine... 9."
Blue-chan (and the nurse/secretary): "ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?!?!"
me: "ehh? 10? Okay, 10 is good."
Blue-chan: "no no no!!"
me: (acting like I was giving in) "mouu~ XX-chan.... I'm tired... but alright, 11 should be okay."
Blue-chan: (whining and now punching me) "nooo, 5!! 5!!"
me: "no way!! 5 in the morning is way too late for me."
Oh, and I don't know what she thought we were doing, but she was all nervous the whole day. She had come up to me just a bit later to ask me again what we would be doing. I told her we're just writing the speech. She asked me "renshu dake?" (practice only?), which I was like, "yeah, that." She breathed a relieved sigh and let out a "yokatta!" (what a relief)... but I still don't know what she thought we were doing.
About 25 minutes after Cleaning Time ended and the bulk of the kids were at their various clubs, Blue-chan and I went to the 3A classroom. Some other students were in there, including 5-0-san and Omiyage-san. Blue-chan was all business, but I wanted to chat a little bit while she was getting settled. I tried to practice the police language dialogue I taught 5-0-san by holding a pen to Omiyage-san's neck (not too close though... and the cap was on anyway... Omiyage-san still played along), but 5-0-san needs to work on her police negotiating skills. Her response to this intense situation was to just shoot Omiyage-san, haha. I've heard of "shoot the hostage" situations when dealing with terrorists and such... but not with run-of-the-mill crazies, heehee. Poor Omiyage-san... will she ever be saved?
When I went to sit down with Blue-chan for some hardcore speech-writin', the other two followed me over. Blue-chan's topic is her favorite hobby, which is singing and dancing. Her intro needed a little work though... and luckily with her two classmates all giddy ad hepped up on whatever, there were plenty of suggestions. Considering that 5-0-san is very tough and scary looking, it had me falling over with laughter everytime she screamed out something cute. Her suggested opening line: "hello everyone!! I love you!!!" It just got funnier everytime she said it, and she probably repeated it about 3 or 4 times. Even the quiet Omiyage-san was laughing hard, though poor Blue-chan only gave a courteous chuckle, then cried "muri!!" (no way!!)
And thus begins the training of Blue-chan for the 2009 Takahashi City Junior High School English Speech Contest. I hope she does well when it comes to showtime, XENO said with modest sincerity.
ARGH... WTF!?!?!, XENO exclaimed with outrageous anger.
Now you've done it, XENO threatened with vagueness.
So I was perusing the interwebs five minutes ago when I discovered a couple of vids that fit into my "wtf" category, which by my own admission, is fairly large. What really got me however was the fact that these vids were in fact not just any normal kind of video, but rather commercials for some backpack in Japan for children. You know, the kind of backpack (Randoseru) that's portrayed in anime, worn by elementary school children ever so often. But the commercials are uh...weird.
Okay. That wasn't that bad right? But what about these...
And here's the kicker. These are children's backpacks. And they cost $360 a pop. $360. I mean, I know Randoseru cost an arm and a leg (market price is around $300) but it's times like this that I'm glad I didn't get raised in Japan. Can you imagine how many of those bags I'd have worn through in the first grade alone?
Coverage Days: Wednesday November 11th - Friday November 13th
Schools Visited: JHS, ES1, ES1ASP
Entry #264
The days of olde are returning to the land of Xenodonia. The Sun has risen over the horizon once again. The angels sing and... ummmm... butterflies and flowers and fluffy clouds and playful kittens all do those things that make themselves likeable. If you couldn't tell by the title of this entry, the wonderful news to share involves Cuteness-chan, and ANY story involing Cuteness-chan is wonderful, but that's not all that was wonderful in the mountains of Japan this week. Read on to see what else happened.
Though we're discussing three days in this entry, there really isn't much to say about Wednesday's School Festival at the junior high. Technically Wed was my ES3 day, but we switched it with the "stand-by" day I had originally scheduled for last week, then activated that day so I could help out with the festival. Since we're a small school, we don't get the big schoolwide fair-grounds type of event you see in school-daze anime, but rather just a single main-stage with all the classes rotating their performances. Each class performed one music act and one play. A few smaller groups also did presentations, and some videos were shown, too. I was a little disappointed that I hadn't been informed of what was going on for the teachers' skits, but then became somewhat relieved when I discovered that they had been scrubbed from the playlist altogether.
As for the event itself, everything went off without any mishaps. With all the kids on stage or sitting quietly in the audience, there wasn't much interaction to be had. Even during intermissions and clean-up time, everyone was too busy to come talk to me. Meh, it's alright; we'd have happy times together later in the week. But before we get to that, let's talk about Thursday at ES1.
I discovered quite early in the day that apparently I was the victim of receiving a bad translation. I was told that this year's Culture Festival would only be music performances, which is kinda boring for me. But I learned today that this isn't true... or, at least with the 2nd-graders, it's not. This kinda muddles my plans since this school's event is being held on the same day as ES3's event. Since I'm actually helping with the 6th-grade play over there, I kinda prefer to be there. The plan now is to do some split-shift running around that day.
Not much to say about the 3rd-graders' class except that my sticker-project is working incredibly well. So nice to have kids jumping out of their seats to get called on... though, it would be nicer if it were ONLY the kids who actually knew the answer. Some just want stickers, haha. Oh well, with a little prodding and coaching, they get it eventually. Poor Cuteness-chan, though... she was called on to answer "Moku-youbi/Thursday" for our quick review on Days of the Week, but she always thinks the answer is "Friday." I was dying inside as she struggled to remember the correct answer, then was incredibly relieved when she finally whispered "Surs... day?"... which is close enough to correct, haha, plus is totally kawaiiii~
Things are finally getting lively in my class with the 1st-graders. Man, I've been teaching them in this school for over 8 months now, but I think this is only like our 7th or 8th lesson together. Anyway, I finally showed them what a TRUE GTX-lesson is like. As I was calling their names for our "how are you?" warm-up, I would do things to make them laugh. I started with walking funny, then moved up to jumping across the room, then continued with dancing and twirling. Funny voices always have the crowd on the floor. Now, if only they had kept quiet and orderly during our lessons in the kindergarten last year, they could have enjoyed this much more. Oh well... kids are kids.
Also, teaching the lesson on Food provides me with a lot of material. I usually flip through the first few cards with the pictures facing the class, but as I get to the bottom of the pile, I turn it so only I can see it first. I'll act all surprised and happy, usually saying "ohh, this one is delicious" and then ooh-and-ahh over it, completely ignoring the kids. They'll start to get anxious and eager and start begging me to show them the card. When I get further into the pile and they're familiar with what tricks I'm playing, I'll level it up by just showing 3 or 4 of the kids in a corner of the room. The kids who get the sneak-peek are brimming with joy since they are now privy to secret information that everyone else is dying to know.
Plus... everyone loves ice cream. heeheehee
One thing I find remarkable is that even my "nobi-nobi" (students with learning/behavior problems) function well in my lessons. There are 2 kids in the 1st-grade class who are classified as special needs (one being Punk-Ass, which only makes sense now... I'd consider changing his nickname to something more sensitive, but hey, the little punk-ass punched me in the chin, haha). Anyway, there is also another kid in the 3rd-grade class. Usually these kids are more wild and hyper than the others, but I've noticed over the months that now THEY are the ones excited for English-time... and by "excited," this means that they are sitting attentively in their desks, waiting for the lesson to proceed, all the while telling their classmates to be quiet when things get out of hand. And even more remarkable to note is that they are retaining the information quite well. They frequently raise their hands to answer questions, and often come up to me after class to show off their skills. I had thought that maybe it was just the teacher-aides coaching them with the answers, but this day, the aides weren't present, so it's geniuine proof that the kids are doing this all on their own.
Haha, ironically enough, the student who "acts up" the most in this class is actually English-chan. The subject-matter is not challening enough for her, obviously because she's a native-speaker, but I don't think she understands that her classmates really need the slower pace. Luckily I'm the only one who can understand her when she blurts out in class, so it's not disruptive, just moreso annoying. I wish I could explain to her what the deal is, but she's in the back of the room and so I don't have much opportunity to talk to her about it. I think what I may do is have the other kids just answer the vocabulary in one word responses, but then have her also answer each question using a full and complete sentence.
Side-note related to her...
her response to "how are you?": "I wish it was 12 o'clock so I could have my lunch now."
Her classmates' reponse to her response: "ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh? Wakarinai!!" (even the teacher was like, "huh?")
During the after-lunch recesstime, the kids all assembled in the gym for some sign-language song* they were all learning. I think someone asked me a long time here on this blog if Japanese people had their own version of sign-language. Well... there's your answer, haha. Maybe they're the same gestures, I dunno. The only one I could translate for myself was "friend/tomodachi", which is symbolized by cupping your hands together and drawing a big circle flat in front of you (as if you were you outlining a tabletop).
* is that an oxymoron?
In the 6th-period, I taught the 5th-graders. We were finishing up our lesson on Transportation. It was kind of a slow-paced lesson. The only thing I remember finding entertaining about this class period was when I was drilling the vocabulary using the flashcards and one of the 6th-grade girls walked by our room. Since the wall facing the hallway is made of all windows (you should know that from EVERY anime featuring a school), I could see her passing by. The card I had up at the time was "rollerblades," but the 5th-graders were struggling to remember how to say it. I knew it was fresh in the mind of the girl walking by since she had the same lesson in the 2nd-period, so I caught her attention as she was passing and mouthed to her while pointing at the card "what is this?"
"Rollerblades!!!", she shouted with pride, hahah.
Oh, I do remember other things from this class now. Caffeine-chan was being a pest by stealing one of my flashcards and refusing to give it back, so to get myself a little collateral, I snatched up her pencilcase. She didn't seem to be bothered by it until Smash-chan signaled to me that I should pretend to barf in it ("sick! sick!"). Haha, of course this lead to a truce being made, and soon enough I had my flashcard back, safe and sound.
Also, Kendo-chan1 and Smash-chan both wanted to know if I had a girlfriend yet. Haha, how do you say "I'm working on it, I'm working on it" in Japanese? The update on that situation from 4-sensei is... he hasn't gotten the contact info for that girl I met from his friends at her school yet. I'm dying out here, haha.
After school is when all the happiness returned. Well, not immediately anyway. The 3rd/4th-graders were finishing their music rehearsal together down the hall from where I was having class with the 5th-graders. I caught the end of their practice, then helped them carry some of the instruments down to the lobby so that the volunteer parents could move everything to the community center. But soon enough I saw that the 3rd-graders had made their way to the playground, so I went to see not only what today's game-of-choice was, but also if any girls nicknamed "Cuteness-chan" were involved.
All that stuff about clouds and kittens and rabid weasels... no, wait, that last one doesn't belong in there... all came to fruition when I had a repeat of last week's happy surprise (GTX Goes to the Dead People Center) by seeing that the one and only Ball of Cuteness was joining in the game of tag that was being arranged as I walked out. This particular game was fun because it involved a whole section of the class I very rarely ever get to interact with, including two of the "clique-ish" girls, as well as one of the super-quietest girls on the planet. Two of the hyper-boys were playing, too, which is good since if I keep them entertained out of class, then maybe they'll be more calm IN class.
There isn't much to say about a game of tag. Tag is tag. Run away from the person who is "it" (onii), get tagged, then chase after others. I did pretty well today. My strategy is just to fake the kids out. The clique-girls were really enjoying my sneaky-tactics... particularly when I run a few steps ahead of them until they get tired, then turn and hold out a hand to offer an easy tag, just to whip my hand away as they go for the touch. Usually I can get them 3 or 4 times until they just swing at my stomach or shoulders. I did this to Cuteness-chan, too, but I went a little easier on her since I haven't witnessed any Tears-Mode Meltdowns in months and I wanna keep that record going.
I would make all the kids playing panic whenever I "cornered" them on the slide. Technically it's a platform with one staircase, and two slides off to each side, only about 5 feet off the ground. When they would go up there, I would only have to stand at the base of the stairs to get their terror started. Then I would slowly step up to the first step, but hang halfway off the side, which they knew meant I was getting ready to dash off the side if they went down the slide. They would screech with fear as I drew nearer and nearer... perhaps their only defense tactic: if they can't run from me, then might as well temporarily disable my other senses with supersonic shrills, haha.
The fun ended at 4pm, unfortunately, when the kids had to leave for dismissal time. I didn't get as much quality-time with Cuteness-chan as I would have liked, but just being able to interact with her like the old days was enough for me. If anything, two weeks in a row of her staying after may indicate that this is a new long-term change... a most welcome change, indeed. Anyway, some of the 4th-graders were still around afterwards, but I remembered that I had promised the After-School Program teacher that I would help her this week since she's on her own, so I excused myself to go over there. Not much was going on there. I played that marble-game I love with Punk-Ass and Semi-chan, but they both ran off to go make spinning-top whatever-you-call-'ems. I found some kids in the big activity room down the hall playing keep-away with a balloon, so I joined in on that. This was a good move since though the boy was a 2nd-grader I play with often, the two girls were 3rd-graders who I rarely see, so this was a good chance to get in some quality-time with them.
Now to discuss today... Friday the 13th. Eeeekk!! I didn't even realize that today was THAT day until I checked my calendar just now to fill in the data for the "coverage days" section up above (yeah, I do things in weird orders... so sue me). Turns out that a lot of the students were missing from the junior high school today. I should have known since I had heard from StinkyBug-san and Blue-chan that the big track-and-field meet that they've been training for was going to be today. This meant very low attendance for the three classes that I would be teaching with A-sensei in the morning. But low-attendance is good sometimes since it means we can have more relaxed lessons and do some "experimental" projects.
For the 1st-period, we taught the 8th-graders. A-sensei's experiment was to try "double-BINGO." He had the students fill out two copies of the BINGO game we were playing, so I thought that we would be having the kids check them both off as we went along... you know, like the ole' blue-hairs down at the church BINGO halls do. But no, we just played the game twice in-a-row. I added something of my own in there, though. As we were about to start, Tenisu-chan was being her usual genki self. Before I could say the first word, she was yelling out her "requests" to me. I used this as the basis for my idea: I'll let the 8 students present each pick one word for the class. This was good since it added in a little extra reading/speaking practice, plus they enjoyed it since it was guarenteed they could cross off at least one word each.
In the second-half of the period, A-sensei had me bring the students into the next room to have "free-talk" time. I forget what the topic for the first class was, but I know that "A-sensei has no hair" was the best joke of the groups. It's reeeaalllly good that he has a good sense of humor about it since it comes up so often... and is a joke passed down from class to class. After the period was over, he asked me how the talks went. I told him that the joke came up and he wanted to know who said it first. I told him that it was "secret information," haha.
The 7th-graders had free-talk time in the 2nd-period. I can't remember much about the details since everything was so rapid-fire. The kids are funny and energetic during free-talk time, so it's hard to pick out specific examples. I didn't think to jot down notes until the 3rd-period with the 9th-graders, who were ALSO having free-talk time.
The first group I had was made of five girls. I had my beginning joke laid out as we were all walking down the hall to the room we would use together. Once everyone was sat down, I pulled out my grading roster and checked off everyone who was in this group:
well... the joke is in there, only you can't see it since I have to censor the girls' names. For the first four girls, I addressed them by their names, but for Johnny-chan, I actually referred to her as our little private in-joke, "Johnny!!" It's been months since I've joked around with her like this... ever since I suspected that she was mad at me, I've felt like it was better to stay more-professional until I could be certain things were alright between us again. Over the months of helping her out and being cordial to her, I've sensed that things are okay again. And this was fully-confirmed by her laughing and fake-crying when I called her "Johnny" once again.
Of course, the girls would have their own jokes, too. "My favorite teacher/musician/movie/book/whatever" was the topic" Endearing enough, ZombieHunter-san picked me as her favorite teacher*. Going down that road, the other statements include "he likes pizza, he doesn't like fish, he teaches English, he lives in Nariwa." For whatever reason (see same list below*), Johnny-chan also picked me as her favorite teacher, though it's also likely that since she just heard her friend give her report, she would only have to recall what she just heard. I threw in an oddball question to make her earn her credit: "where am I from?"
* actually, a lot of kids picked me, though I'm not sure if it's because they REALLY like me, or just because I'm there, they might as well make me feel better about myself (or suck up to me, heh heh... those little brown-nosers)
She had to think about it at first, so using the dead-silence as an opportunity, ZombieHunter-san whispered loudly enough for all to hear, "Africa." Haha, she couldn't even get it out without laughing, which only confused the hell out of Johnny-chan. She was like, "heh? what? honto? really?", which only made the rest of us laugh harder.
The group that followed was also just as lively and energetic (and brown-noser-ish). This group was made up of 5 boys, all with varying levels of English-ability. Well, they knew just enough to be funny, and after the first boy finished his segment on everything about his favorite teacher (the wonderful GTX-sensei), we moved on to the next victim. The second boy is one who talks to me a lot, but really only to say that he can't speak English, haha (go figure). He was sputtering for content right away, so I helped him by listing the possible topics...
me: what is your favorite movie?
wisecracking boy sitting next to me: movie!
me: ... book?
wisecracking boy: book!
me: ... your favorite tv show?
wisecracking boy: tv show!!!
me: ... musician? song?
wisecracking boy: musician! song! monkey!! toilet!!
hahaha, by that point, I was too busy laughing to try to think of anything more... and of course, now the other three were bombarding the other boy with "monkey?? toilet?? monkey!! toilet!!!" Yeah... our free-talk times aren't always productive. Oh, but I did find out where PenguinDance-sensei got his... uhhhh... penguin-dance from. It's some comedic variety show that the older kids really love. One of the boys said it was his favorite tv-show and even did a nice demonstration for me, haha. It all makes sense now!! It all makes perfect sense!!!
no, wait... no it doesn't. In fact, it doesn't make any sense at all!!! Oh well, at least now I know where it came from: .... uhhhh.... ummmm... tv.
My day ended with helping out Omiyage-san prepare for her interview test. I thought it was going to be next week, but I found out that it is actually this Sunday. Haha, it's a good thing I casually asked her as we were originally finishing up because I was about to send her on her way after just a quick 10-minute run-through. We ended up working together for 30 minutes longer, practicing the examples 3 times. Her ability to form sentences is good, and she sits up well, but she needs to work on speedy-delivery and speaking more loudly. I told her that simple asnwers are preferrable to 4 minutes of awkward silence, and if she needs to ask to hear the question again, then "one more time, please" is a good phrase to remember. Also, I prodded her to be "genki" and "happy" like every 45 seconds. I hope she remembers to smile. I think it's important since even if she's struggling like hell on the inside, if she's at least smiling on the outside, then it will show her confidence, which is what I think she needs most.
On Monday, we'll find out how good of an interviewee Yuki Nagato is, heeheehee. Bets? Anyone?
And now to enjoy my weekend in peace. It's the peak of fall foliage season here in Okayama. The weather calls for rain tomorrow, but Sunday should be fantastic, which I'm hoping it is since it will be the festival in my base teaching village. I'm kicking myself in the gonads since I stupidly deleted all the photos I took last weekend in the city by mistake. Good grief.
Until next time... see you!!
P.S. - an update on everyone's favorite JHS character, Blue-chan... she still attends English Club every Monday and is getting herself ready for the upcoming English Speech Contest... though she was supposed to show me her draft this week, but apparently forgot. I'll bop her on the head on Monday because of it.
I remember a time when I used to watch TV shows and think they were cool. I'm not talking about obvious shows like Pokémon (which I still find, admittedly, cool) and Yu-Gi-Oh, I"m referring to the 90's style shows that have become lost to the younger generation, for better or worse.
In lieu of a better way to introduce this blast from the past [insert cliché], I'll let this opening speak for itself, and for those few fortunate enough to remember these shows, prepare your heart because your fond childhood memories are about to get a rekindling that you're going to remember.
Yep... the Big Bad Beetleborgs. I didn't watch this show religiously and I kinda of forgot most of this show, with the exception of some vague, fragmented memories, but still, I think I remember liking this show at some point. I was truly flabbergasted when I heard the surfer-dude narration, saw the bad make-up, the awful dialogue and the actual song made me grit my teeth. Wow, desho?
Okay. So this wasn't nearly as bad as the Big Bad Beetleborgs, but they do share some similarities. They have awful casting as per the common standard of the time, including the stereotypes and fashion. If you're a real trooper, try watching the first episode of this thing and feel the nostalgia flow back.
Because I didn't have cable back then, I watched this on VHS (I bought it cheap) and thought to myself (like...a decade ago?) that this wasn't that bad. And really, this show is pretty decent. Not too good, not too bad, Superhuman Samurai Cybersquad was just campy enough.
*Note*
Both of these shows were based off of some other Japanese show (tokusatsu), kinda like Power Rangers. Just thought it was interesting how much impact Japan had on my childhood without me even knowing.
"I come from the net."
This show will be awesome-sauce for ages to come.
Enough said.
Here's another show that I absolutely adored. I mean sure, it's not that old (by my reckoning, anyway) and it was still making runs on Teletoon until a few years back, but this opening sure made me think of days of yore. Also: did you know that I love show-tunes? I still sing this song with my friends every now and again, especially on bus-rides to something anime-esqe.
As for the actual anime itself, I liked it when it aired. Heck, I still like Nevada's take on Cardcaptors, I thought that the concept was bad-ass awesome. I've watched both the Nevada English version and the Japanese one, and honestly, as far as entertainment value is concerned (ignoring all other factors) the English one was more relevant to me than the Japanese one.
Bite me.
And who could forget Godzilla - The Animation? This was around the time when the American version of Godzilla came out and they were capitalizing on it, but damn I loved this show as a kid. I still kinda do. And the opening is just pretty good, it's passed the test of time.
They did the same thing with MIB - the Men in Black.
I remember that I liked this show. I think I still have a soft-spot for L.
There were a lot of shows back then that I still remember, some more worthy of mention than others, shows like (Action man, Batman Beyond, etc.) but a lot of shows from my childhood didn't really embody the 90's kinda spirit. The 90's was the real pioneering age for children TV, when they were still doing the live-action, that is until it died out in favour of animated series, most probably due to costs and relative popularity. Of course, shortly after, the whole western-style 'animated series' became increasingly obsolete and they eventually adopted anime to replace it; speculation over why is an entirely different matter. What we do know is that there's a lot more anime now to entertain kids than there was back in the day.
Although it wasn't until recently that we saw large-scale importation and airing of anime on TV, it could be said that the trend really got started at around the millennium, when the success of Yu-Gi-Oh and Shaman King made anime more mainstream. Sure, the 90's had it's flaws, but I think it was a good time for those of us that remember it.
Coverage Days: Monday, November 9th and Tuesday, November 10th
Schools Visited: JHS, ES2
I'm going to make an attempt at another "whatever I can cover in an hour's worth of typing"-style entry. Ready?.... go!!
My morning at the junior high school started off a lot like a few of my past days have. I entered an empty teachers' room only to eventually figure out like 15-20 minutes later that everyone was in the gym working on the preparations for the culture festival. A little note or something saying "hey, come to the gym once you're settled" would have been nice, but whatever. I found the 8th-graders in the gym doing various laborous (is that a word?) tasks. I started by helping a few of the students lay down some tarps across the floor (to keep the chairs from scuffing up the basketball court), then moved on to pulling the folded chairs from out of the sliding trough they were all laid out on. Hardly exciting at all, I know, but at least I was getting in some time with my kids right from the get-go.
I've recently come to the disturbing realization that A-sensei is just plain moody. I often ask him if I can join in whatever class is having PE during my free-time, of course, AFTER I ask him if there is anything he needs me to do for him and the English lessons. AFTER I know there is no work to be done, I'll ask him if I can go play with the students... because, after all, I can't teach the kids if I can't develop bonds with them... and I can't develop bonds with them if I don't interact with them. This is all stuff he knows and he agrees with, yet I can always expect one of two responses from him... and never does there seem to be a pattern:
Response 1: "oh yes, please. Of course you can play with the kids. It's good quality time for you and them."
or
Response 2: "you're not here to just play! You're a teacher, you need to focus on planning lessons."
Now, of course Response 2 is highly legitimate, and of course I completely agree with him on this one. However, when I spend all morning asking him what I need to do to prepare for the day, and, you know, actually doing such requested work, sometimes I still get this answer. In fact, one day, I actually got BOTH of the responses within the span of two periods. This just leads me to the conclusion that it's not quite me, per se, but just him having stuff on his mind and not being clear with me about the full scope of what needs to be done. Also, considering that I work through lunch and stay late in the afternoon, why he would ever doubt my dedication to my job leaves me baffled. I want to talk to him about it, but with the schedule being crammed with upcoming activities, I'm gonna let it simmer for a bit. Maybe we can have a heart-to-heart on the upcoming teacher trip to Tokyo (we're going to DisneySea!!!)
And speaking of activities... I'm thinking his crankiness has something to do with my asking Blue-chan to join the English Speech Contest. This kinda makes me sad since this contest shouldn't be about winning, but rather about getting students to try their hardest to succeed. I wish he could see the potential for what this really means: if the "stupidest" girl can complete the task (not necessarily win), then that should be incredible motivation for the rest of the school.
And again, related... he did something I disagree with again. He's a few times referred to Blue-chan as "stupid", but now he's been using some "choice words" to describe poor Taisou-san. If you recall, she's one of the best soft-tennis players in the school. She's very tough and very athletic. She has an unfriendly appearance (she just always looks pissed, and like she'll punch you for looking at her), yet with me, she's very friendly and energetic. Her conversation ability is terrible, but she tries. Her writing ability, however, is incredible. I've never seen her make any mistakes. Yet, when I was correcting today's pop-quiz, I noticed that she got a 100% perfect score. As I double-checked it, I said to A-sensei sitting next to me, "wow, Taisou-san is incredibly good at writing."
His response: "she must have cheated. She's kind of retarded."
Okay... she didn't cheat because I watched her take the quiz myself. And as for being "retarded," I'll just chalk this up to bad translation, since I don't think he really meant it to be that severely critical. Granted she probably doesn't focus in class, and hey, I don't see ALL her work, nor her grades, so maybe she really isn't as great as I think she is, but based on the few essays I've seen her write, she seems to have a good grasp on the material.
Well, anyway, what was I talking about before all this? Oh yeah... joining the PE classes. Normally I'd just skip over something so trite, but I feel today was a key-gain with one particular student... who actually happens to be my biggest challenges in gaining approval. The student I refer to is the tough, quiet 9th-grade boy. He rarely talks, and rarely interacts with... well... anyone. I barely ever see him outside of English class (where at least I know he's smart since he's always right when he gets called on out of the blue). But yeah, he's been kind of a tough-shell to crack given our circumstances. At least with the other boys, I can jump in on their conversations just by running down the hall with them and jumping into (usually literally) whatever they're doing*.
* lately it's been fake-punching one another.
The advance I gained today came in the form of, well, soccer skills. Being the big-guy, he's quite an opponent on the field. The kids on my team had good skills with moving the ball, but they were often tossed aside when the tough kid bulldozed his way right through them, often getting right up into the goal-zone. With my being on defense, this meant it was more so up to me to challenge him. Not wanting to curdle to his onslaught, I often just charged him back, usually managing to get the ball from him, or if not, at least messing up his course and ruining his shots. With the best player rendered useless, my team pulled out with an easy 5-2 victory.
Earlier I mentioned that A-sensei has been super busy. Today, we started a new project: prepping the students who would be taking Stage 2 of the English Proficiency Exam. Two of the kids from our school passed Stage 1 (of the maybe 20 or 25 who took it). The next stage is a live-interview. They will have to do that sometime next week, so in the meantime, A-sensei and I are giving them some coaching. I was given Omiyage-san (Yuki Nagato). She's the girl who is incredibly smart (Yuki Nagato), yet incredibly smart (Yuki Nagato). She can also freeze time in selected areas (Yuki Nagato) and neutralize a photon laser with the palm of her had (Yuki Nagato).
What? No? Those last two, she can't? Oh, I guess that explains the hole in her hand. Whoops.
I did succeed in one thing at least... I got her to talk at regular volume. Err, well, by "regular" volume, I mean "regular" volume for a quiet person. She smiled whenever she realized I was pushing her to be louder. She knows she's a quiet person... now I just need to figure out a way for her to break through that. Hmmmmm... maybe I should bring in a radio and play music at a normal volume forcing her to speak over it.
Woo... 30 minutes in and I've reached the halfway point of my outline. And yay... the best story of my day... and no big shock, it's a Tenisu-chan story! Now that it's wintertime, it's been getting incredibly dark very early in the evening. Considering that the kids are still at school until 5pm, it's odd walking around a functional school even though it's nearly pitch-black outside. So on Monday, as I was getting ready to leave (there weren't any big club meets since half the kids are practicing for some big track-and-field event), I was walking through the lobby to head upstairs to see why the light in the 8th-grade homeroom was on (I figured some of the kids were finishing up Culture Festival projects). As I turned the stairwell, I could hear two familiar voices yelling loudly and excitedly from the darkness.
"It's Xeno-sensei!!! Show xeno!!! Sensei, mitte!! mitte!!! (look)"
It was Tenisu-chan and NameQuiz-chan. As they came into the light, I could see that Tenisu-chan was wearing... one of the boys' school uniforms. Hahaha... I wish words could describe accurately how brilliant this moment was. Considering that I see the boys' uniforms and the girls' uniforms so often, it's just mind-blowing how it jumps out at you when you see them switched among the genders.
Now, if I saw one of the BOYS wearing on the girls' uniforms... I'd laugh hysterically... but then soon start thinking, "oh... ummm... well... if that's what makes him feel pretty."
I could go on and on about Tenisu-chan's uniform switcharoo, but words aren't gonna do it justice, so let's move on to discussing Tuesday at Xeno Memorial Elementary School #2.
The world greeted me with another gloomy morning today. It's just so tough pulling myself out of bed when the skies are gray and dull. When the sun used to shine, I was always up at 7:30, which got me to school early enough to enjoy free-time with the kids. Now that it's depressing in the morning, I've been slacking with my early arrivals as of late. Luckily this school doesn't require my presence until 8:45am, but I still try to make it in by 8:30am. I figured since the admins are probably used to my coming early, I might as well try to make it in early, which in the end worked to my advantage since I was able to enjoy a wonderfully excited greeting from the 1st-graders I found up in their classroom before the day officially started. They hadn't seen me last week because of the national holiday, but based on how excited they were to see me, you would have thought I just came back from a war. If you had to wonder, Ready!Go!-chan was the leader of all this.
The day began with a school-wide morning rehearsal of their upcoming music concert for the Culture Festival (which is over a month away, I found out today). I thought they already had it considering that I didn't see any of the instruments in the common room, but I soon discovered that they were just moved to the gymnasium. I did all my planning for the day in the first half of the period, then ventured over to the gym where I was able to watch the kids warm up. And of course, the 1st-graders saw me enter and were flagging me over to come sit with them. I was happy that they wanted to interact with me, but I knew that if I was a distraction for them, it would just anger the teachers. At least my happy-time with the little kids was witnessed by the older kids, who might have started to think, "well, if the little kids like him, then he must be a nice guy."
And of course the little kids love me... and to solidify that, I was able to carry out one of my favorite classroom jokes. For the official lesson on "Rock, Paper, Scissors, 1, 2, 3", what I do for the review is I challenge each kid as I give out their name-cards. To put in some energy, I act like I'm a sumo-ninja, which just drives the kids insanely wild. Even the teacher was laughing her ass off.
Our lessons together have been going great. They seemed to have increased my frequency of visits with this group. We used to meet every other week, but for the last two months, it's been every week. I don't know if it's just because something else changed in the schedule or if the kids have been taking to the lessons so well, but either way, I'm happy teaching this group every week... even if technically it means more work for me (and if I get re-contracted for next year, I'll love it even more since the incoming kids from the kindergarten are absolute angels). But nevertheless... next week will be a special lesson since the Board of Education will be doing its inspection of this school. Originally I wasn't scheduled to be teaching the 1st/2nd-grade class, but I'm wondering if after the success of today's lesson, a new decision was made to include it in the schedule. I hope the BOE inspectors drop in on our lesson during the warm-up.
Hmmm... it's been an hour since I started writing, and the only thing left on my outline actually is a story related to, wouldn'tyaknow?, the 1st-graders. I played with the 3rd/4th-graders during the morning recess (kickball), and I was looking forward to doing so again after-lunch, but Ready!Go!-chan and her partner-in-crime wanted me all for themselves. I forget how I got roped into it, but I know it involved RG-chan just asking me to follow her "for just a second." Next thing I knew, I was dragged into their classroom and made to listen to melodion music. I was kinda like "yeah it's cute, but melodions are lame... and you're not even playing a song... you're just pressing buttons." Unfortunately (or rather I mean, fortunately!) the teacher in the room was telling them to stop being annoying, which opened up the chance for me to suggest we go outside with everyone else. They took the bait and off we went to get some fresh air before a huge rainstorm barreled in (and which still continues strong even now, 9 hours later).
Outside was racing, spinning, and jumping. Typical kid stuff. What I thought was cute and funny was how often they fall down. Haha... no no, I'm not enjoying my kids' getting hurt; I would always be stricken with fear every time they bit the dust, but after I checked on them, they'd tell me they were fine and show me that they weren't hurt... only to dash off and fall again. Haha, based on how (un-)graceful they are, I take it that it's a common occurrence for them.
I didn't have much reason for mentioning that. I could just delete it, but then again, I'm trying to segue into an ending for this entry. Tomorrow is the long-awaited Culture Festival at the junior high school. I have seen a few rehearsals of plays and music performances, but for the most part, I have no idea what to expect tomorrow. Should be fun times.
Until next time, see you!!
Notice
As a way of adding extra protection for my students (and my job), new entries will come out on time-delay so that my assistant editors, AJtheFourth and JackGrover, can help me edit out anything that might be taken the wrong way. We don't want people to think ill of certain situations, especially considering that I'm a 28 year-old male working with girls aged 5-15. Sometimes when I word things a certain way, it reads online as something different from how it sounded in my head. Hopefully my editors will catch these quips before the guys at Dateline: To Catch a Predator catch them, heehee.
Coverage Days: Thursday November 5th - Saturday November 7th
Schools Visited: ES1, JHS, ES1ASP, + 2 Special Excursions
Hey, readers out there in blogland, we have quite a timespan to cover since the last entry. Though we have to discuss my most recent visits to my two most moe-ful schools, as well as TWO excursions, I'm going to try to keep this entry short by just focusing on the better key-moments of each day. Without another keystroke to waste, let's get movin'
Thursday, November 5th: ES1
This was my first "normal-schedule" day back to this school probably since the semester started. Undoukai practice, influenza absenses (myself included), and a mix of other random occurrences kinda interfered with my usual 6/3/2/4/5 line-up. I'm thinking that it will all be smooth sailing from here on out, considering the shocking surprise I learned this day: ES1 will NOT be having a Bunkasai (Culture Festival) this year.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww... disappointing, to say the least. I thought it was because of the influenza, but apparently this has been in the yearly schedule since the beginning. Maybe this school and others like it only have big performances every other year. Well, they WILL be having a music recital, but that's not all that interesting to me (especially since I have to listen to the songs ad nauseum throughout the day as each class rehearses). It's actually scheduled for the same day as ES3's Culture Festival, so I might do a half-and-half visitation that day. I do wanna see ES3's 6th-graders perform their play in English, heehee. I did mention that in the last entry, right?
Looking over my notes from this day, only two classes stood out with something interesting. Well, actually, the 2nd-graders isn't exactly "interesting"... not for me anyway... but we did decide to do the Hokey Pokey together. I hate the Hokey Pokey. I'm not even sure how to "do" the Hokey Pokey. I just wiggle around with my hands on my hips. Meh, whatever... it gets the kids moving and it seems to make O-sensei happy.
We started the lesson on Food today. Or actually... we REVIEWED the lesson on Food today. Apparently they still remember it from last year, so this is just moreso a refresher for them. I could have used this as a chance to add in new vocab, but I decided the better use of this material would be to practice "do you like ~?", so I had them play the "Interview Game," which they seem to enjoy.
My 2nd-graders have always been a great class for me. They are always lively and energetic. I wish I could say the same thing for the 5th-graders, but I feel as though they've lost their spark. When they were 4th-graders with 4-sensei, they were wildly energetic. Now that they are under Perfection-sensei, they always seem so subdued. I was glad that today, they finally came to life during our lesson, and together we relieved those good ol' days when they were all practically leaping out of their chairs with excitement. I guess they really enjoyed the lesson on Transportation we did last year, so they were happy to be doing the same activitiy again this year.
To explain, what I would do is show them pre-printed maps marking our school and some other location on the planet. I'd start with something local like the supermarket, the junior high school, or the train station, then move farther out to places like Osaka, Tokyo, China, and of course, Boston USA. I would ask them what modes of transportation they could use to get from the school to each place. They seem to find it hilarious to imagine taking a submarine from our school to the train station (there is a river, but it's literally only like 3 feet at the deepest point). Also, comedy was aided by a Spiderman magnet I used to pin one of the flashcards to the chalkboard. As I was going through the list, asking them to idenitfy each flashcard, I would sometimes point to Spiderman. Also, you can use Spiderman to get from the elementary school to the junior high school.
Normally I wouldn't bother to write an entry about such a typical day, as happy as seeing my 5th-graders energetic again made me, however, today marked a major key point in my life. After school today, I was ecstatic to see the return of one of my favorite students: Cuteness-chan!!! Since the year started, she had always been going straight home after school, so she was never around on the playground with the others during free time. But today, she stayed around. I'm not sure if it's a new permenant thing or just a one-time occurrence because maybe her mom was working late today or something (I have another theory more related to me... but I ain't sharing it, haha, sorry). Well, whatever the reason, it was happy times once more, since my quality time with this girl has been sorely missed. Her love for English has been inspirational to me*.
* we clean together sometimes, which she uses the time to recite whatever the day's lesson was, but that's been the extent of our outside-class time together.
So what did we do today? We... uhhhh... threw a ball at a pole. Ugh, well... ummm... yeah, she's fun and creative, smart and humorous... but the games she thinks up are kinda lame. Well, whatever, the other kids playing with us found it funny, and at least I got her to count in English, so she's still willing to practice* her skills with me. But yeah, anyway, that's what we did together. Actually, we started off by playing catch where I would throw the dodgeballs we were using as high up into the air as I could and the kids would try to catch them. A bit of challenge, but a necessary skill for any kid to have, I would think.
* mouu~, now that I think about it, I should have had her say the months in order... Time-chan was also in our group, and I KNOW she knows the months since she absolutely loves the song I taught her last year.
On Thursdays, the teachers all have their big weekly meeting. I didn't want to disturb the proceedings, especially since I was planning on staying late to tune up my lesson plan a bit, so I got permission from the kyoto-sensei to go to the jidoukan while the teachers had their discussion. It's been ages since I've went to the after-school program on a Thursday. I almost forgot how to ask in Japanese. Haha, and apparently I have never asked the kyoto-sensei since he was all like "jidoukan? where is that? play with who now? what does the jidoukan teacher say about that?" As I was thinking of how to explain it, the kouchou-sensei, who was sitting right next to us, just cut us both off and was like "yes yes, no problem, go have fun." He knows that I'm willing to stay later in the evening in exchange for fun earlier in the afternoon, so it's cool with him.
It's also cool with the main jidoukan teacher... and especially now since her assistant teacher is apparently gone, as I learned today. She had been out sick many times, though according to the main teacher, never for anything serious. That may have been a fib, since she was ALWAYS out, and now she's been removed from staff for some unknown reason. Anyway, point is, now she's all on her own until a replacement comes back... which won't be for two whole weeks. When we were talking about it, she said to me "please come many times and help me," which is understandable since it's just her with maybe 10-15 kids, all spread out around the building.
Fine with me. I'm addicted to that marble board game (it's kinda like Backgammon, a friend I explained it to observed) anyway, which always draws a crowd and keeps the kids entertained. I played against Semi-chan and beat her three times-in-a-row. She didn't enjoy losing (duh), but at least she enjoyed playing with me. She even used this as a chance to practice her new English. She, along with the class' super-quiet girl, wanted to know when my birthday was. I learned that both of their birthdays are in March.
The only moment of comedy of this afternoon's visit came from Semi-chan, of course. As we were playing the marble game, we were sitting directly across from eachother. At one point, as she was staring at the board, she was just sitting there, motionless, quietly. Her face then scrunched up, at which I knew she was up to something now. Then it came... she sneezed. Didn't cover up her face, didn't turn her head... just... yeah... all over the place. Well, luckily nothing disgustingly gross came out, but it's still yucky to know that she hasn't reached that age were she should plan such things ahead. Good to know for furture warning.
Friday, November 6th: JHS/ES1ASP
This day was absolutely boring. I helped teach three classes in the morning, but in the afternoon, all the kids left campus to go do whatever. The 9th-graders had some dance competition; the 8th-graders had job-shadowing day; the 7th-graders were just gone (something about "science" or "home ec" or whatever... I couldn't get a sensible answer). It just sucked cause no one told me ahead of time, and since all my planning was done, I really had nothing to do. If I had known ahead of time, I could have come up with something more constructive to do with my afternoon. Oh well, at least I got to leave at exactly 3:30pm for a change.
There was luckily quite a bit of comedy in the morning classes, at least. In the 9th-grade class, the boy who is always yelling out random things was, for some reason, telling me in front of everyone that A-sensei was "dead" (it mighta had to do with the textbook lesson, I think). Anyway, no one was really sure what to say to this (since it's kind of a strange thing to say), but he kept repeating it throughout the period. I finally figured out a way to turn this into a joke. The next time he said it, I pointed at A-sensei and pretended to be scared. I shouted "ahhh, a ghost! a ghost!!" I was quite happy with the reaction I got from most of the kids.
If you recall from recent entries, you may remember that I remarked on how I felt that A-sensei has been picking on poor ZombieHunter-san lately. I guess she's felt the same way, too, since she's been letting out her frustration in the form of hilariously funny charicatures of him in her notebook. I couldn't see them as he was laughing about it during the class, but afterwards when I was marking the students' homework, I saw that she had drawn a "timeline" of A-sensei's life. In his current look, he has an oversized squash-shaped head, with goofy glasses, and of course, only a little ring of hair. What had me on the ground laughing was how when she drew him as an infant and as an elementary school student, he had the same exact head. Oh, and apparently his wife looks like him... just with boobs and a dress... and their child together will be just as ugly.
I did teach with the 7th-graders today, and though we had another lively lesson, I didn't recall anything worthy of note.
With the 8th-graders, we were doing skits today. I remembered from last year this section in the textbook. The original is as follows:
Flight Attendant: Excuse me, you don't look well. What's the matter?
Passenger: I have a headache. I didn't sleep well last night.
Flight Attendant: I'll get you a blanket.
Passenger: Thank you. It's very kind of you.
The students were to use that as the basis for their own skit, changing just the ailments, the reasons, and the solutions. The 6 or 7 we heard were pretty good, but the two I remember most were:
StinkyBug-san: Excuse me, you don't look well. What's the matter?
Girl: I have a stomachache. I ate a poison apple last night. StinkyBug-san: I'll get you a prince.
Girl: Thank you. It's very kind of you.
and
Really?-san: Excuse me, you don't look well. What's the matter? Tenisu-chan: I have a backache. I flying-kicked some aliens. Really?-san: I'll get you some medicine. Tenisu-chan: Thank you. It's very kind of you.
heh heh heh heh heh heh heh... and yes, they asked me for help. When Tenisu-chan asked me to confirm "aliens" for her, I said to her "like Nagato-san?", which instantly made sense in her mind. Ahh, so nice to be able to communicate globally. ^____^V
Going back to the future... errr... the future of the past... which I guess is still the past... only not as far in the past as the other past... ouch, my head hurts. Anyway, 3:30pm... I left the school at my contract-approved time since there were no kids on campus here. I stopped by the jidoukan to see what was happening there. I got a very nice reception from an unlikely surprise: Chizuru-burger! Usually she's busy when I come into the room, and just gives me her comedic "bah, xeno-sensei! bah!!" and goes back to her book or craft or whatever (only to chase after me later when she's done), but today, I didn't even have my shoes off when I heard her shouting my name repeatedly from far away. I could hear the sound getting louder and louder until she appeared from around the corner and darted out to greet me.
"Asoubimashou!! Asoubimashou!!" (let's play!!)
So nice to see them excited about my pressence. I asked her what she wanted to do, but she kinda just twirled around, glancing around the room for something to do. I think she thought of it at the same moment I did, but we both turned to where the marble game was stored on the shelf at the same time. Long story short, I whopped her butt 5 times-in-a-row, but it's so cute to hear her shout "one more time!!!" after I drop in the final marble. She was smiling the whole time, and I even got her to use some English as I counted off each marble we both dropped in as we moved around the board.
Our game was interrupted by snack time. Today was some weird tiny potato-chip snack, only they were shaped like cylinders. I don't know why, but meh, whatever, they tasted alright. They were also perfect for tossing up into the air and catching your mouth. I remember Semi-chan and Kendo-chan2 at our table, as well as one of the 6th-grade girls who interacts with me, but doesn't talk much, and one of the 5th-grade girls who's kind of a slow learner, but has shown remarkable improvement over the last few months. All of us ended up competing, and Kendo-chan2 upped the ante by trying to do it in 2's and 3's... which just lead to chips all over the floor. I also caught her off-guard when I was standing behind her as I was throwing away my wrapper and waiting for her to toss up her next volley. Once she had them in the air, I snatched them quickly, which just put a look of "I cannot believe you just did that!!" on her face. Haha, priceless.
Friday, November 6th, nighttime: Japanese Funeral
I had received a call on Thursday night from the kouchou-sensei at ES1 explaining that Perfection-sensei's father had "gone to Heaven." He said that there would be a gathering meeting at the school on Friday night at 5:30pm and that I should come in a "casual" suit (I don't think that's what he meant to say). I wasn't sure what we would be doing, but of course I want to be there in support of my coworkers*, especially during tough times.
* and for the record, I'm not really all that bitter about the instant back-stabbing she committed when I first met her... she's really nice to me and she tries real hard, so I do try to be nice to her whenever possible.
When I first made plans to come to Japan some 18 or so months ago, I never had ever thought that I would be attending a Shinto funeral. Let alone not packing (or, you know... OWNING) a black suit, I wasn't sure what to expect. Luckily my coworkers were gracious enough to show me the ropes, and the family was understanding enough to not be insulted by the, I'm sure, slight disruptions I may have caused.
When I arrived at the school, I saw that we were being put into carpool groups and heading off somewhere off-site. I was with the kyoto-sensei, 4-sensei and PenguinDance-sensei. I wasn't sure what we were doing, so I tried to ask my fellow carpoolers, though none of them are great at English. I asked them all, "where are we going?" They all kinda did that "uhhhhhh... ummmmm... how do you say...."-thing where they know they're up for a challenge, followed by a minute of silence. Finally, I was offered by 4-sensei the following...
"Dead People Center"
o____________o;
the... the... the what? Instantly I imagined a sterile, white lobby with zombies in medical gowns wandering around, filling out forms and submitting applications. Not quite the same as "funeral home," which is what I came up with after thinking about it for two minutes... but in my defense, the first minute was spent trying to stop my silent internal laughter.
In all seriousness though, the funeral was a nice peaceful ceremony. It was extremely quiet, but surprisingly well-lit. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing, so I just copied everyone around me. What you do is, first you enter the foyer where you take off you shoes. A member of the family (I'm assuming, the one you're connected to the death by) will greet you at the door. You both kneel on the tatami mat at the threshold and bow deeply and repeatedly. Of course you say some comforting, solemn words to eachother, but I don't know THAT much Japanese.
Next, you find a table where some more family members are sitting. There is a registry on the table that everyone signs. I'm not sure what they are writing, though I can guess it was something like some small words of comfort. I excused myself from this portion, as my Kanji probably isn't refined enough for something so important.
Nearby is the reception area where guests sit around the altar seiza-style on (the word escapes me... zabuton? kobuton?) pillows. They are given piping hot green tea by the family, and anyone is free to go up to the altar and offer a prayer. In Japan, all bodies are cremated, but I don't know at what stage that occurs. I'm guessing they are cremated beforehand and maybe the ashes were somewhere on the altar. I did see the photo of the deceased, which I knew about from anime, as well as dozens of flowers all around. Most interesting was a candle and a small bowl of ash*. Next to those were some incense sticks. What you do is hold some prayer beads and make a prayer for the deceased. When you are done, you light an incense stick, then place it into the ash bowl flame-side up. Kinda like a final birthday cake, I suppose.
* oh wait... don't tell me that THAT ash was from the body
The place was kinda crowded, though it was small anyway. I don't think it was meant as a big ceremony, but moreso a quick drop-in, show your support, then step aside. We were in an out in just 10 minutes. Granted we were just a coworker-group who didn't know the deceased directly, so it's possible that a more intricate service was done for the immediate family at another time. But what I did find kind of worth noting was that there were some little kids there, dressed in normal streetclothes, just running around the place. I can't say what their relation to the man was, but they didn't seem to have any understanding of what was going on around them. Meh... kids are kids, I suppose. Japanese people rarely see their family members, so who can say what impact this death had on them? Certainly not me... and that's why we can move on to better, more happier topics...
Saturday, November 7th: Takahashi-Niimi Young Teachers' Group Excursion
I was asked by a very drunk 4-sensei last week if I wanted to go bowling on Saturday. I knew it would be a group of teachers from two cities, but I didn't realize it was actually going to be much bigger than that. Haha, luckily I had my whole day free anyway.
And there would be girls there!!
I arrived at the meeting point at 10am. The group grew to 18 members before long, including both 4-sensei and PenguinDance-sensei, as well as the young secretary from my junior high school and the English teacher from BradPitt-sensei's JHS, who is actually a woman I know and talk to often. I was shown an itinerary of what we'd be doing and learned we did have a full day ahead of us. A day which was made up of...
10:45 - Nariwa Art Musuem (d'oh... I just went there last week)
12:00 - lunch at Texas (good place to eat... been there once before)
13:00 - mountaintop park in a nearby village
15:00 - bowling tournament
18:00 - drinking party at local bar (izekaiya)
Immediately 4-sensei wanted to know which of the 6 girls present I was most interested in. I pointed out to him a few girls I thought were cute, to which he gave me some rally support. I didn't actually need much help from him, but it was good to know he was there for me in the corner. Anytime I talked to him, he'd tell me "girls... attack!!!", haha. I didn't get to interact with any of them until we went to the mountaintop park. I was able to get a better idea of who I thought was cute and made a decision on which one to focus on.
As we went down the mountain, we all found this really great children's playground. I thought they just wanted to see what kids these days get to play with, so I was really surprised when they all started going into the equipment!
hey, maybe this group is a lot more fun than I thought, heehee. The parents and kids around us gave us looks, but whatever the teachers told them seemed to put them at-ease, haha. Works for me... I got to ride on the big-ass slide, heehee... though still not as cool as the one from THIS entry a while back. Playing on the equipment was the perfect chance I had to start talking to some of the girls. They were very friendly and very receptive of me and my broken-English, heehee. I wouldn't learn until later that the one I took a liking to actually speaks very decent English. Oh well, it contributes to my studly adorableness factor. The only thing that would have made this better was if one of my students were here, too, and then she could have seen how well I get along with children.
Turns out I wouldn't need any help from outside-sources. We spoke while we waited for lanes to clear up at the bowling alley, which is how I learned her English is good. We would end up sitting next to eachother at the drinking party later on in the evening, thanks to my birthday being in June and hers in July*. I won't say anything else about her, though technically it wasn't a date. I'm curious to see if anything comes out of it after I talk to my co-teachers about it tomorrow.
* Japanese are nuts for assigned-seating. If there aren't any pre-made tickets for drawing out of a hat, they have to get creative. This group sat everyone in order of birthday... and they even went around the room to double-check the answers.
As for bowling, we formed 6 teams of 3 players. They used this interesting line-chart where they hid the lane assignments under a fold, then had everyone write their names on the top half. Once all the lines were filled, they unfolded the paper to show who was bowling where. I was put with this nice guy from Niimi and with my English teacher friend. We all did terrible (I only scored 124 and 123, respectively, putting me in 6th place overall). Funny thing is, my friend got tons of strikes, only she would roll a gutter ball first each time. So in the end, her scoresheet was full of spares, but with no extra bonus points.
At the drinking party, I talked with that cute girl all night long. I found out her name is the same as one of the Xeno Rangers, haha, but I won't say who. Oh, and her parents live near my house. But like I said, I ain't jinxing anything, so that ends that discussion. What was worth mentioning from the party is that someone had this interesting party game electronic device. It was some kind of quick secret-survey thing. I don't know if questions are pre-made (i'm assuming they are) or if they are input by party guests, but basically a "yes/no" question is presented on the screen of the handheld device, then passed around to everyone to input their secret answers. Once the device makes the round, the results are shown to everyone.
Some of the questions I remember:
"Are you happy with your life?"
"Are you stressed at your job?" (5 of 15 teachers said "yes")
"If it could be done magically, would you choose have a sex-change?" (I think this one got "0", but the "if you could come back in the next life as the opposite gender, would you?" question got "5")
"Do you like love dolls?" (8 people said "yes", haha)
"Did you have fun today?" (all 15 of us said "yes", which resulted in a huge cheer and another "kampai!!")
Fun game. Fun times. Fun people. Fun day. I hope we can do it again soon!!
Coverage Day: Wednesday, November 4th
Schools Visited: ES3
The title of this entry may have set the tone a little bit. Well, that's not to say my whole day was sadness and melancholy, but I did have to go on throughout carrying some grief with me. I discovered in the first class of the day that one of my 4th-grade girls has transferred out of the school, as her family moved to Eastern Japan. She was someone I had only just starting to notice as an individual, and luckily I did manage to get in a little bit of fun with her before her departure by way of fun together at the Cooking Club meet I joined last week (a href="http://www.anime-source.com/banzai/modules.php?name=Blog&bop=display_entry&id=637">Chef GTX.
That loss I could have dealt with easily, since as I said, she was someone I had only spoken with marginally. What really pinched my heart a little more was finding out in the 4th-period that ANOTHER student was gone. The 6th-grade class is full of thirteen wonderful students. The loss of ANY of them would make me upset, though of course, I have contended with the fact that they will ALL be leaving in March. Considering we're near the 2/3 mark of the year, it's a bit of relief that I did get to spend the bulk of the year with this girl, but sadly, I must say that the newest up-and-coming potential Xeno Ranger is now gone. She didn't have a nickname yet, but she was the quiet, serious girl who would often run up behind me and poke me randomly, trying to be all ninja-like or something. She was also the girl who started the whole tape-sticking game when I was helping in the watermelon patch back in the Spring, and the same game again when we were making the Haunted House for the school festival. She was a lot of fun and a great student. I will surely miss her.
I'm a little mad that the schools don't bother to share this kind of information with me. Though I am not directly-responsible for them, these kids are still MY students, and the chance to say a proper farewell to them is something I think I am entitled to. I can understand that maybe the admins still consider it a "private" issue and if the kids themselves want to say something to me, they have that freedom. I'm sure the kids would want to, but they are never sure when the last time I will actually see them will be, considering the consistant fluctuations to my schedule. Sigh... oh well, whatcanyado?
Well, as sad as the news may be, there is little chance of being upset when the rest of the kids are around. This school has finally fully-accepted me into its community, and now I can't go 5 steps without someone running up to me for a high-five, arm-grab, RPS123 match, or "jump" or "spin" request. Often times, too, they'll want to show me something, which results in my being pulled from one end of the building to the other. And though the attention is usually evenly-spread amongst the whole student populace, one particular 3rd-grader was exceptionally "genki" (energetic) around me today.
Surprise, surprise... it was MopBattle-chan. This girl is usually ALWAYS set to "hyper-friendly," though with my schedule for October completely rearranged and her mood being more subdued as of late, it was a welcome return to the good-ole days where she would follow me around non-stop. Goofy faces, funny noises, impromptu games of tag, sudden whacks on the head, yanking my arms, tying a jump-rope around my torso... wait, no... hold on... none of those last few are fun. Maybe I prefer the days of her being quiet and subdued, heh heh.
But yes... jump-ropes. Apparently there is going to be a "jump-rope festival" in February, so now the students are spending their morning free-time practicing their dances in groups. Hmmmm... February is 3 months away... that's a LOT of practicing. Most of them are already good at it, so I wonder what is so incredible that it will require 3 months of training.
Well anyway, yeah, about Mop-chan, she kept showing me her jump-rope, which looks a lot of string-candy (licorice, perhaps), so I kept saying I wanted to eat it. Numerous times we ended up in tugging wars with it, but I didn't get too much into it since I would feel terrible if it snapped. I just pulled enough to make her strain and get worked up, then I'd losen my grip... hopefully not at an instant when she was putting her whole body into it, otherwise she'd go crashing to the ground, haha.
About the actual classes today, I had 2nd-period with the 3rd/4th-graders. We reviewed Days of the Week, and I was very happy that they could recall the info so easily since it had been two weeks since their last lesson. For the new lesson, we started on Months of the Year, and again I was impressed with their progress. We only needed to go through the list twice before they were able to recall the info freely. Of course, we did singing* and more practice to really drill the knowledge in, plus a "when is your birthday?" group activity. The teachers came up to me later in the day and told me how much the kids really enjoyed the lesson.
* most of the songs on the CDs I have aren't very useful because they are sung too fast. However, the "12 Months" song I use for this lesson is perfect. Good tempo, good beat, good vocals... and the students really really like this song. In my ES1 4th-grade class, often times when I want to kill 30 seconds as I'm preparing papers or something, I'll just sing "January, Febr..." and then let them finish the song. They never get tired of it**, haha.
** Related-story... since we came to this unit in all my 3rd/4th-grade classes, I knew already that my ES1 4th-graders knew all the months perfectly since I taught them last year. Earlier in the week, I had spoken to 4-sensei briefly about planning the lesson. He was a little hesitant since obviously learning 12 new vocab words is a struggle, but I just shrugged it off and was like "believe me, this will be like a 5-minute lesson." He was absolutely amazed at how impressively these kids were able to handle the lesson. Oh, and these are the kids that their teacher from last year always said were "slow." Comes to show any group of kids can achieve as long as their mentor believes in them. (okay, I'll stop being sappy now)
The 6th-graders and 5th-graders both did textbook work today. The lesson is on "What do you want?" using a clothing shop as the setting. The only really funny part from these two classes was when I was doing the "how are you?" warm-up during the 6th-grade class, one of the smart, funny girls was being her usual loud self, always talking in-between her classmates' exercises. When it was her turn, I threw in a little curveball...
me: "how are you?"
her: (stands up slowly, checking to make sure chair isn't going to trip her)
me: (thinking she's taking too long) "I'm..."
her: (pauses to think)
me: "I'm..."
her: "I..."
me: "I'm... I'm... I'm..."
her: (starts to giggle) "I'm..."
me: (moving closer and closer) "I'm... I'm... I'm..."
her: (laughing harder, trying to think) "I..."
me: (just continuing) "I'm... I'm... I'm..."
her: (turns to the side, laughing)
me: "come on!! how are you? I'm... I'm... I'm..."
her: "I'm sleepy and hot!"
me: "yay!" (hands her her namecard and walks away)
The class lesson itself was kinda boring, though the kids are always lively and energetic. Problem is that they're always talking in Japanese and they're talking to the main teacher, which gives me little to do during most of the time, save for a few moments of properly pronouncing new vocabulary... well, one joke I fit in was I said "koala" was "koalalackula" or something like that... oh, wait, but that reminds me something else...
One of the vocab words was "donut", but Japanese people always say it like "donuts"... as in "do na tsu." I explained to them that when you have one, it's "donut," but when you have two, it's "donuts." One boy yelled out, "three?" I responded truthfully, "donuts." Then another student yelled out "four?"
My response: "donutstststs"
heeheeheeheehee... I'm just glad that they all got the joke, evidenced by their immediate laughter. Smart kids, these ones are.
Or maybe they're really stupid. Heehee... according to the girls, the boys in this class are all "baka!" And I was informed of this after class ended. Since the 4th-period is right before lunch, there is the extended break-period once we're done, so usually I hang around and talk to the kids. All the boys were wrestling on the floor in the middle of the room, while some of the girls were telling them to cut it out. When they wouldn't listen, the girls looked at me and said "they are baka!" Hahahah... half-English, half-Japanse... I love it. One of the really smart girls, for whatever reason, came up to us and pointed at herself and said, "I am baka." We were all shocked and were telling her, "nooo, not baka!! Don't be baka!!!" It turned into a running-joke throughout the day where anytime I saw her, I would tell her "don't be baka!"
I don't know why, but for the school's Culture Festival later this month, the 6th-grade class is going to be performing a play all in English. The teacher wrote a pretty simple script and did a great job with the language. Why he didn't ask me for support or anything is beyond me, though I suppose it's kinda like "well, it's not included in his schedule (since it's after-school), so we can't ask him directly", but of course I'm interested in seeing this work out, so I offered to help with the rehearsals on the days I'm there. I applaud their initiative.
I spent a lot of free-time going around to different activities today. In the 3rd-period, I found the 5th-graders in the home economics room using the sewing machines. They were making cloth bags from pre-printed patterns. Not surprisingly, a lot of the prints had English on them, so of course they all wanted me to read it all to them. In the 6th-period, the 5th/6th-graders were starting their practice for their Culture Festival musical performance. There wasn't much I could do to help with this, so I wandered off half-way through. I found the 4th-graders in their classroom making pachinko boards... which is basically a flat board with pins sticking out. You drop a marble or pinball onto the board and try to get it into a target slot at the base. I guess the people of Japan get addicted to gambling at quite an early age.
At dismissal time, I found MopBattle-chan again. Actually, I also found her after lunch where she wanted RPS123 and to pull on my arms some more. A few of the 1st/2nd-graders pulled me away from her (literally), where I ended up outside to run around with the little kids (including Mayonnaise-chan*). After most of the kids were gone for dismissal, I joined the After-School Program kids who were playing soccer outside. There were 9 of us, including one of the helper-parents who was brave enough to be on goal, so it was somewhat of a decent game. Wore me out tremendously. I have to work off all that fat from eating at Mister Donut so much this week, haha.
* I learned today that her sister is the 4th-grade girl who has been addicted to me lately. Both of them have become extremely interactive with me over the last few weeks. I don't know what the catalyst was, but I'm sure it's no coincidence that they both started up around the same time. Makes me think they've been talking about me at home and comparing stories.
I tried to stay as long as I could today, but I was incredibly hungry, so I left around 4:30pm. I won't be back at this school for two weeks because of the postponed junior high school Culture Festival. I'm sad because I really like this school, but oh well... the day will come before I know it.
And now, the bloggin' be done. Time to relax and tend to my fields on FarmVille via Facebook.... my new addiction.
It feels like it's been forever since I've posted an entry in here. Actually, this marks the longest stretch I've gone for in which I haven't shared an update while continuously attending school. And the reason for that is...
well, to be honest, not much has happened. Maybe I've sadly come to "that" point where even my interesting days are just "normal." Sure I can tell you all about what awesome and exciting things I did today with my students, but considering there are nearly 300 similiar entries, it wouldn't be anything most of you have heard before. Well, just out of wanting to gap holes in my coverage, this will be a quick highlight-entry.
Wednesday, October 28th: ES2/KS2
ES2 is the first elementary school to begin preparations for its bunkasai (culture festival). Most of the day, the students are in the Common Room practicing their parts for the big music performance. There are traditional instruments such as koto (big string instruments), shamisen (like old banjos), recorders, and one or two taiko drums. The song they're playing is very slow, which is understandably necessary considering that for 1/5 of the kids, it's their first time performing such a band.
My most interesting part of the day actually comes from the KS group. I teach the akagumi-san and the kigumi-san, because, well, there are only 8 of them altogether anyway (5 girls, 3 boys). They're so cute because they always rush the door when they know I'm coming, then they'll listen carefully, hoping to catch me speaking what little Japanese I know. When I try to deny it and tell them "nihongo wo wakarimasen" (I don't understand Japanese), they squeal with glee. Haha... they need to be more excited about the English part, I think. Maybe next time I'll copy what they do when THEY speak ENGLISH. Kids love praise, afterall.
Thursday, October 29th: ES1
On Thursday, ES1 had its Parents' Observation Day. It's the day of the semester when parents are invited to come view all the classes-in-session. A lot of parents showed up to ES3's event, and considering that ES1 is twice the size of ES3, I was preparing myself for a large crowd of onlookers. Based on the full parking lot I encountered when I arrived in the morning, I had the suspicion that my theory was correct, however, most of them split after 2nd-period, which did me no good since I don't start my duty until the 2nd-period, and for today, all they had me doing in the morning was helping watch the 4th-graders while some ceremony was going on. Oh well, free bonus-time with one of my favorite groups of students.
Really, the only other thing worth mentioning is that my evil plan to lure the 3rd-graders into behaving and paying attention in class by bribing... I mean... rewarding them with stickers, continues to be awesome. Of course, I have to be careful that no small number of students gets too far ahead of the rest of the group, otherwise they'll start to riot. For the record, Megane-chan was the first (and only so far) to reach the 4-stickers mark.
Friday, October 30th: JHS/ES1ASP
My last day of the week was spent at the junior high school. The 8th-grade English lesson was interesting, as the kids were to present their speeches on what they want to be when they grow up. A-sensei gave me the duty of videotaping the activity, which I suppose is alright. It wasn't a great class for me, personally, since I just sat in the back of the room the whole time (which takes away my chances of being witty and charming), but a lot of the kids put on some very entertaining shows. The class favorite was the boy who wanted to be a cop, who had plenty of gestures to accompany his explanation.
The students were all being graded by their peers. Criteria consisted of eye contact, loudness of voice, use of gestures, and content. One boy was obviously aiming for just the first three, since he basically went up to the front and thought up as many things as he could to engage the crowd... without actually talking about the assisgnment, haha. Most notable moment: he just asked random kids "do you like Hindi?" Extra points for including the audience, haha.
What bugged me most was at the end of the day, A-sensei (who was in a terrible mood all day) had me figure out the averages of all 22 students (took me over an hour of straight number-crunching). When I told him who won, he didn't like the results and decided to just go with HIS favorites. I was like "okay whatever you say" while on the inside screaming "WTF!?!?! Why would you have me waste an hour of my day with this incessant calculating if you were just going to pick who YOU liked in the end!?!?!?"
Oh well, anyway, speaking of English speeches, I had a good discussion with the four 8th-grade girls who will be in this year's competition... errm, well, the same four from last year: Tenisu-chan, Alice-san, StinkyBug-san, and DollDream-san. The five of us were standing around the podium at the front of the room after A-sensei left and the rest of the class was relaxing during their free-time. For some reason, Tenisu-chan said she'd be right back, then ran off. I kinda moved myself over, so now all 4 of us remaining had our own side of the podim. A minute later, Tenisu-chan returned, only to find there was no spot for her to stand in our group. She's crafty though...
She actually just quite literally slipped in front of me. I then quite literally just pushed her aside, haha. It got a slight chuckle from the others. Not wanting to be outdone in terms of bringing laughs, Tenisu-chan again stepped in front of me, only this time she was telling me I wasn't needed anymore because now SHE was me.
She points at herself while addressing me... "Xeno-sensei desu!"
She turns back toward the podium and the other 3 girls and starts pounding the podium with her fist and talking in a deep voice.
I can't be outdone by that... and because now the universe was short one Tenisu-chan, the void had to be filled.
I pointed at myself while addressing the whole group of them and say... "I'm Tenisu-chan!!"
I immediately rushed right alongside... ummm... "me"... and kinda bumper her aside, while bobbing from side-to-side, talking in a high-pitched voice. I forget what I was saying (probably just say "la la la"), but whatever it was, it had all the girls laughing, two of which ended up on the floor. Oh, and I pretended to pull on my pigtails, too... just to add to the girliness of it, heeheehee.
I left the JHS at 4pm since most of the students were taking the National Kanji Test this afternoon. I visited the After-School Program where I got some "smile candy" from Semi-chan. I don't know if it counts as origami since it's literally just a piece of paper wrapped around another balled-up piece of paper. The one on the inside has a smiley-face drawn on it, hence, "smile candy." Too cute.
Friday Night: ES1 Nomikai
I was told on Thursday that there would be a drinking party with the ES1 teachers and parents on Friday night (hooray for advanced-notice!). Luckily I didn't have any plans for that night anyway, so I was able to attend. I ended up sitting with the kouchou-sensei, as well as the 3rd-grade teacher who I don't think likes me. Maybe after spending the whole night together, she's soften her opinion of me. We also sat with two parents, one who was near impossible to hear because of her quiet voice. No shock to discover that she is Silent-chan's mother. Guess that solves one mystery in my life, haha.
The night was fun, despite it being a 3-hour and 45-minute event (yikes). I got to talk to 4-sensei later in the evening and we made plans to go bowling next week Saturday morning. As he got drunker and drunker, he started calling me "ecchi" out of nowhere. Then he asked me how to say it in English, to which I regrettably told him "perverted." He spent the 10 minutes after that just telling me that I'm "perverted," which I think was just him admitting about himself since he was telling me just before how his favorite part on the female body is the nipple, haha.
Monday, November 2nd: JHS
My week started off with me again behind the video-camera during an 8th-grade performance. They needed to rehearse their play performance and needed a video of it. There isn't much to say about this except that after we were done, the kids all needed to shoot little "ganbatte!" mesages while introducing theselves and their characters. The funniest one goes to Tenisu-chan and StinkyBug-san who did these adorable little salutes as they introduced themsleves, haha.
After lunch today was my long-awaited Halloween Super BINGO activity for the English Club. I had advertised it all week and had a few students express interest. Unfortunately, a lot of them were gone throughout the day because of some tennis tournament in the city, and then of the 7th-grade boys who wanted to come, I guess they just plain forgot. Oh well, at least Taisou-san showed up. She's undergone some kind of personality transformation in the last year. She used to be so quiet and reserved... often just asking me questions calmly. Now she barges into rooms screaming her greetings and is a lot more openly playful with what she wants (mainly stickers). We were waiting for more people to come to the game as she started yelling that she wanted the game to start and to screw anyone who came in late, haha. I didn't see the point in trying to play BINGO with one person. I think she just wanted to guarentee that she'd win a prize sticker.
Her plan was almost foiled by Blue-chan who came flying into the room after finishing her kitchen clean-up duties. The game came down to the very last word, which meant I needed a tie-breaker. I had them race to read the list of words, which still only barely yielded a winner by a tiny fraction.
Nothing worth mentioning about the afternoon classes themselves. After school I had been on planning on joining the volleyball clubs, but with the Track Team currently taking members from all the usual clubs, it wouldn't have been worth much to go to the other clubs. Since we're still preparing for our postponed Culture Festival, I went to the 9th-grade classroom to help Yochien-san, Johnny!-chan, 5-0-san and the Japanese teacher with those banners that hang off to the side of the stage telling the audience the name of each performance and who is in it.
Since I can't write Kanji, I just helped Yochien-san tape the backs of them. It was enough to be useful and earn some brownie points. Of course, this makes me wonder what I was doing last year after school each day when all the 9th-graders then were preparing for the culture festival. I'll have to check my old entries for a refresher.
Personal Life
Let's discuss Halloween in Japan. Okay, we're done.
heh heh... j/k... kinda. As you can imagine, Halloween hasn't caught on too big here. The Japanese do the pumpkin-carvings and some of the spooky decorations, but there isn't like any big influx in candy distribution, and trick-or-treating door-to-door is absolutely unheard of. Not surprisingly, the place you'll find the most "spirit" (no pun intended) is at stores and restaurants. As for my classes, aside from the aforementioned JHS English Club Halloween-themed BINGO, the only other holiday-related activity was coloring and teaching a few words to the ES3 1st/2nd-graders. I would liked to have done more, but all my classes are behind-schedule because of the Swine Flu.
Oh well... I did grab myself a handful of Snickers and Kit-Kat bars the other day. It was my only "taste" (again, no pun) of the holiday this year.
As for personal entertainment, I used the rainy weekend to catch up a bit on To Aru Majutsu no Index and Family Guy, plus the latest South Park, which, coincidentally enough, rags on the Japanese. And for a trip back to the past, I stumbled upon some old episodes of Rescue 911 on YouTube, which had me aching for my old fire dispatching days (well, the exciting nights, at least... the boring nights I can do without). This prompted me to go on a search for the vids that people take at fire scenes, trying to find if anyone caught any of the fires I worked. Not only did I find one, but I found a site where a guy was selling full-coverage, which includes all radio transmissions. I dug up one of the last fire incidents I could remember and ordered a DVD copy, just as a cool momento of that period of my life.
Stepping back to the present... errr... recent-past... I also went to Kurashiki to check out the big shrine there, though my camera batteries died sooner that I would have liked. On Sunday, I went to the little art musuem in Nariwa. The museum building itself was the most interesting part of that excursion. I think I scared the art out of one of the cute curators there by randomly shouting "hello!" at her. She smiled, but BradPitt-sensei just gave me a weird look and tried to make fun of me for talking to girls. He's fired as my wingman... he's scaring away all my girls.
The last point of interest I want to mention is that I was mentioned on the Boston radio show that I listen to over the radio every night. I made a joke about the new Michael Jackson This Is It movie by giving a spoiler alert ("he dies at the end") that the hosts found worthy of a mention. They also seemed surprised that they had a listener in Japan, heh heh.
And now I need a hot bath. The daytime temperatures here have finally sunk below 60F, all thanks to the rainstorm that barreled through Okayama over the weekend. The leaves are just starting to change colors, so I'm hoping to use my random holiday (it's Culture Day) tomorrow to go someplace where the colors look beautiful.
Until next time... see you!
P.S. LOL... I just got a voicemail from 4-sensei. He doesn't speak much English, so it sounds like he wrote out what he wanted to say, then read it extremely extremely slowly.
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