Follow the Night Light

Another glorious long weekend. Thank goodness, I was exhausted.

Saturday I went in to Tenjin and finally bought an electronic dictionary! I’d been wanting one for ages. It was just after payday so I splurged and got an expensive one that you can write kanji in. This is super helpful, so hopefully I will study Japanese now instead of just sucking.

Sunday was a wonderful day.

There was a festival in Joujima, where my friend Darcy lives. Joujima is technically still part of Kurume, but basically it is in the inaka (country), so it was an adventure getting there.

It was a lot of fun though. There was only one main street on which everyone was gathered. First, there were water races.

Then there was a parade. Lots of schools had kids carrying various dragon floats or similar.

These guys were fun.

There was Taiko drumming.

The little boy was pretty amazing.

And at the end this group threw mochi.

After the parade, we headed over to the tents to get festival food. Apparently festival food is amazing. I wouldn’t really know since I can’t eat most of it, but it seemed like a good time.

B, Jess and I went into Tenjin that evening for the Anmitsu Hime Drag and Comedy Show!

Needless to say, it was brilliant.

Jessica had reserved us tickets: 4500yen on weekends with 1 drink included. The theatre is actually located pretty close the the livehouses that I frequent for VK shows.

We arrived at about 7:40. They told us to arrive by 8:15 and that the show started at 9. This was kind of mystifying at first, but all became clear later.

While we were waiting in line (we were about 10 people from the front) a couple of the performers came out and started mingling with the crowd (their previous show had just ended). We had herad that they like to pick on foreigners, and when one guy saw us it was pretty instantaneous. He said something about my hair like “ooh! reggae dancing!” before descending upon us. He actually spoke a fair bit of english, so we talked in english and japanese. He asked where we were from. When we said America he said “ohh! FREEDOM!” He was funny. He talked to us for awhile, mostly making jokes. At one point he said “ohh, nice body.” referring to my boobs. “Have babies!” *gestures having babies out of his ass* It was pretty funny. By then it was time to go in to the theatre, so he scurried along to poke fun at someone else.

The theatre was pretty small, just a bunch of little tables.  When we walked in they led us right up to the very front center table and put me right next to the stage.. I think this was expressly so they could poke fun at the gaijin the whole show.  They sat us with two mid-20s Japanese girls and then one of the performers sat down with us to chat. Turns out that why the doors close so early before the show: the performs mingle with the crowd for 30-45 minutes before the show. It is pretty awesome. We talked to abotu 2 different performs including the star “Tomato mama” She actually did a really funny impression of a reggae version of the ABCs. They all wanted to talk about if we spoke Japanese, and what we were doing in Japan and stuff. It was really fun.

Then the show started. It was about 45 minutes long with musical numbers alternated with comedy numbers. When possible they would poke fun at specific people in the audience, frequently us.

Tomato-mama

It was over all too soon, but we totally intend to go back. They change the show about once a month.

As we were leaving, the first guy that had talked to us called from across the room “See you! I love you! I want you!”  So immediately after we left we went to take purikura and used that as once of our captions.

It was a pretty wonderful day.

Tuesday I went to my Jr. High, but they weren’t expecting me so I had no lessons planned for that I day. I did end up going to 1st and 2nd period with Hiza-sensei, but that left the rest of the day open to intense boredom.

At lunch, though, I did escape to wonder the hallways. I don’t eat lunch with my students; I’ve been afraid to ask, so I jsut eat in the teacher’s room with everyone else. I have, however, taken to wondering the hallways for a chance to say hi to the students and maybe talk to them. Tuesday both 1nensei and 3nensei were out of school for different reasons, so there were only 2nensei. Their hallways is far away and a dead end, so I have no real excuse to be walking there. When I decided to go for it anyway, I was luckily waylaid by a pack of girls by the water fountain.

We talked for about 10 minutes but I was surprised at how bad there english was to be honest. They couldn’t really make the full sentences of what they wanted to say, just a few words. Or if they did make sentences, if was backwards or in the wrong order. But they were trying. Lord knows they wouldn’t have been speaking any english otherwise if I hadn’t shown up. Plus, I had a lot of fun talking to them.

Last Wednesday I had had my first eikaiwa (english conversation) class. It was kind of terrifying that people were paying to speak english with me. Jessica, Arthur and I will all share the 2 classes (Tues. and Wed. classes, each once a week.) There are about 17 people, a range of ages and english abilities in the class. This makes it tough to direct the class to appeal to everyone. Luckily it was the first lesson, so I spent most of the time doing self-introduction stuff. What I realized is that, given a blank slate to teach from, I am horrible at time management.

This was made clear to me again this week at elementary.  In a rare occurrence I am teaching a the same elementary 3 times this week. I will even have the same classes twice!

First, I taught 4nensei. Again, 4nensei ar 100 times more boring than 3 nensei. It boggles the mind.  It must start in 4th grade so that they are practically lifeless beings by Jr. High. Anyway, I prepared the same basic lesson for 2 4nen and 2 3nen classes. In my first class I had nearly 10 extra minutes, in two classes the timing was perfect, and in one class I ran ut of time and went over 5 minutes. What? I don’t understand how this happens. I’m starting to realize how much this job requires me to think on my feet and have an endless supply of ideas to draw from. (I have a little book in which I write lesson ideas. If I ever loose that, I’m screwed.)

Today I had a lesson planned, and we didn’t even get to half of it, but that was fine. Better too much than too little. Plus, it was 1nensei and 2nensei which are my favorite. 1nensei are adorable and so excited, but I think 2nensei are turning out to be the most fun. They were fun at my other elementary too.

I  had my lunch time and break with class 2-1. I told them I would play at recess with them. They wanted to play Kori-oni (freeze tag). This was a mistake as obviously I am the clear target and the onis (“it”) all just followed me around the whole time. But, it is nice to be faster than someone for a change, even if they are 7.

Tomorrow it’s 3nen and 4nen again plus my first special needs class which contains only 4 people. I don’t really know what I am going to do for that class, so it should be interesting.

8/4/07-8/6/07 (don’t know how I missed posting this)

I am now a teacher. I still can’t really believe that Japan put its youth in my hands, but nothing horrible has happened to them yet, so I guess we’re going okay.

I’ve now been teaching for one week. I can’t believe how scared I was in the beginning, and I can’t believe how much I enjoy it now.

That said though, my first couple of classes bombed.

I spend Tuesday-Thursday at my Jr. High. When I arrived on Tuesday, there was the weeks schedule waiting for me. However, this schedule quickly became meaningless. One of my JTEs wasn’t ready for me yet so another one decided to take me to a bunch of her classes, even though I wasn’t schedule to be wit her until the next day. This was fine though, my self intro is the same for everyone so it’s not like I was caught offguard or anything.

Out of 6 periods, I taught 5 the first day. This included 3 split periods, so I ended up doing my self-intro lesson 8 times that first day.

My intro lesson has 3 main components. I give a short speech about where I’m from, my family, my hobbies, etc. with lots of pictures. Then I play a true or false game with questions about me. Finally I play a version of Hot Potato in which the person holding the ball when the music stops has to answer a question I ask them in English. (ex. Do you play a sport?) So, the lesson really differs depending on the participation of the class.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but the first one did not go well. It was with 2nensei. I was nervous and I had too many pictures which made me disorganized. The True/False quiz didn’t really work because everyone just copied each other. Hiza-sensei is a good teacher and she directs the classroom well, so she kind of directed the period along. I felt kind of bad about the lesson afterwards though.

The next period, if possible, was worse. It was with 3nensei, but because my school splits between English levels (High, average and low), I did my lesson twice: once for the high level and once for the average level. I had been looking forward to 3nensei, hoping they would be more interesting because they understand more, but alas, they were super bored. The JTEs for 3nensei were more hands off too, so I just kind of muddled through the lesson.

Afterwards though, things got much better. I don’t know if I was just more relaxed since I had already had some bad lessons or if I just got better at reading the students and knowing what would and would not work, but the rest of the day went much smoother. I even had some classes that looked, I dare say, interested. Plus, my hair is a sure-fire selling point. Even in classes that went poorly, I would have students either ask questions about my hair or come up afterwards to touch it. Considering half of my students have pot leaves on their pencil holders. Maybe Japan is into the reggae/rasta things thus giving me and my dreadlocks automatic cool points.

The rest of the week at Jr.High went pretty well. Even the “low level” 3nensei class was okay. Not good, but okay. I even had some really fun classes with the really “genki” students. I finished my self-intro for all of Hiza-sensei’s classes, so I started doing regular lessons with her. I feel really awkward in these because I just kind of loom around the classroom and don’t do anything important except occasionally read the dialogue. Or sing Queen. The 2nensei are singing Queen’s “I was born to love you.” I don’t know who decided it was a good idea for shy Japanese 13 year olds to try and sing Freddy Mercury, but there you are.

Friday (8/7) was my first day at elementary school.
I’ll be going to 7 different elementary schools, so this was only the beginning. I was really nervous because I had just gotten used to Jr. High, and didn’t know how to adjust my self-intro to the non-existant English level at elementary. Plus, I had met with the teachers and they had made a lesson plan for me in which I was to teach “Fruit.” Of course, we had discussed it all I Japanese, so I had no idea what was going on. However, I needn’t have worried: elementary school is a blast!

I arrived at school and sat in the principal’s office until the first teacher came to fetch me. He didn’t really speak English, but that was fine. First I did my abbreviated self-intro with lots of Japanese translation.  Then was question time! In Jr. High, no one ever says anything when you ask for questions, but in elementary, everyone wants to. (Probably because they’re allowed to do it in Japanese.) I get a lot of “What’s your favorite food?” and “How did you make your hair do that?” but sometimes I get ones like “If you only eat vegetables, how did you get that big?” or “Do you have [super specific kind of beetle] in America? How many bugs are there in America?”
Afterwards, I introduced the Fruit vocabulary and we played fruit bingo which was a big hit.

I definitely have one girl who is my favorite. She was in my first class and then she carried my pictures to my next class for me. She is tiny! Now I understand anime characters who have flowers floating out of their every orifice. She’s totally like that. At recess I had offered to play Dodgeball with her class. (dodgeball unlike I had ever played it before. I had no idea what was going on. I hurt my finger. Rawr! Battlewounds!) She didn’t play, but yelled at me from the swings “Ganbare sensei!” (Do your best!) I died of cute. She and her friend also walked me back in from recess. We were chatting amicably (as much as you can chat amicably with an 8 year old) when she suddenly said. “Sensei, mune ga takai.” (Teacher, you have a big chest.)
I didn’t really know what to say to that. It seemed like a good note to leave on though.

Over the weekend I ran into some of my students at a bowling alley. A group of 5 3rd year Jr. High boys. I might not have recognized them if they hadn’t been staring and pointing at me. By then it was pretty awkward. Later I chased them down and made them tell me their names, all of which I promptly forgot. I have like over 1000 students. If I can remember anyone’s name I will be shocked and amazed.

Monday was another glorious Elementary school day. The Kocho-sensei (principal) at this school was really nice, so I talked to him a lot during my breaks between classes.
But the best were of course the kids. This time was 2nd graders and I was teaching them Vegetables. We tried playing duck duck goose with vegetables names. This confused them I think.

Again, I had an instant favorite. This time it was a boy. He was super tiny, had red and black striped socks, and already at age 7 had great hair. I don’t know how they do it.

After some great days at elementary, I was kind of sad to go back to Jr. High.

It was much of the same: many self-intro lessons. I started doing ichinensei. They are tiny. I heard they were genki, and some were, but mostly they were quiet like all my other Jr. High kids.

I am starting to have favorite though, and figure who is in what class. I really like 1-1, 2-7, and 3-3 classes. I took a walk at lunch down the hallway with 3-3 and they all yelled at me so I stopped to talk to them. One boy tried asking my at least 5 times if I knew Avril Lavine. I kept asking him to repeat it because the Japanese pronunciation of her name is nearly unrecognizable. Then another one of the super genki boys Yelled at me and asked about my hair. He asked to touch it and got really excited. About it and started playing with it. Now whenever I see him he kind of screams my name and comes to play with my hair or make his friends touch it. I think I’m going to start making him answer questions in English if he wants to touch it.

Friday it was back to elementary school! This time I was at a smaller school, so I taught both 3rd and 4th grade. The kids there actually get English about once a week, so it was somewhat different. Waka-sensei teaches them English so they have a general direction that they’re headed. At least the 4th graders do. Waka-sensei was also being evealuated that day by the board of education, so she had come up with a lesson and I was just there to help her. It went fine. It was weird not being the center of attention at elementary school.
I think there is a big gap between 4th and 3rd graders in terms of cuteness. 3rd graders are still adorable, but 4th graders are meh. 3rd grade was fun, because it was just my self intro and whatever else I wanted to do. I got to eat lunch and have recess with 3-2. There were some really cute kids. One little girl told me her name in English after class and told me she loved me (in English). She begged me to sit at her table at lunch, but the homeroom teacher decided and put me somewhere else. One girl sitting near my table adopted me.  Like, she very clearly staked a claim on me. She gave me one of her grapes at lunch. (they only get 2). Afterwards, her and her friends guided me (they all had to have a hand on me) to a room where we played a game. In teams, they would hide a bunch of marbles all over the room and the other group would have to look for them. Then we’d switch. Apparently this is amazing fun. Eventually recess was over and my wee friend (Ayaka maybe?) and her friends escorted me back to the office.

Now it’s the beginning of a 3-day weekend and I have NO PLANS! Boo, Alexis, Boo.

Today was my first day of school.

I had just started getting used to office life, but now now I’m starting the real deal: Teaching.

However, today was just the opening ceremonies, so I didn’t teach yet. Still, the whole idea of being at school as a teacher is frankly mind-boggling.

My Jr.High is luckily exactly 5 minutes door to door from my apartment. Japanese Jr. Highs are 7th, 8th and 9th graders. As I walked to school this morning is was amidst tons of tiny people in uniforms. I must say, the boys uniforms are pretty standard, shirt and black pants (I haven’t seen the jacket yet since it’s hot out) but the girls are the sailor-suit variety but with a light blue skirt and a red bow. I am not a huge fan.

Luckily, I had been shown where my desk was in the teachers room before or I never would have found it. I know I am going to get lost in school all the time. It’s a decent sized school, (800-900 students) but it all looks the same to me.

First we had a teachers meeting. At exactly 8:20 we stand up, bow, sit down and then I struggle to catch the basic idea of what they are discussing in Japanese. Hopefully it is nothing to do with me because if it is, I sure wouldn’t catch it.

Then I was left to my own devices until the ceremony started and I had to give a short speech in english to introduce myself tot he students. The great part about waiting was I just got to sit around and get the feel of the office. The woman who sits next to me is really nice, she let me borrow her glue even though I couldn’t think of what it was called in Japanese. Across from her is this guy, maybe he is like a gym teacher or something. He’s kind of loud and self-amused. . .I can imagine that he drinks a lot.

The only other notable figure is this super-butch woman who sits a ways away. I wonder what she teaches. If she is a dyke gym teacher I just don’t know what I’ll do with myself.

Of course, students are all the time coming to the teachers office for things. It’s amusing because half of them are super polite and half of them aren’t and get yelled out by the gym teacher guy. Also, since today was the first day back from summer, there was a whole group of students who weren’t up to dress code. Once girl had to come take off her nail polish, one got her eyebrows drawn in, and about 4 had to come and get their hair, which as far as I could tell was only a very dark brown, dyed back to black. For serious. Gym teacher whipped out the dye kits they keep in the office and dyed some kids hair right in the middle of the office.

While a few kids were still mid-dye, it was time for the ceremony. We all headed to the gym where the students all sat in rows. After the principal spoke, the vice principal introduced me. I like the vice principal, I think he is a little intimidating, but he is pretty fluent in English and is nice enough to me. I don’t know why it was nerve wracking being in front of hundreds of 12-15yr olds who can barely understand you, but it was a little so I talked too fast and finished as soon as I could. Afterwards though some girls did come up to me and asked my name and said they liked my hair or something to that effect. They must be 3rd years.

I was left alone for the rest of the day so I just tried to plan my self-intro lesson for tomorrow. I’ve still only met 2 of 5 or 6 English teachers I’m supposed to be working with but hey, if they’re not worried, neither am I.

Let’s just hope tomorrow goes well.