Playing Catch Up

10/12/12

Ok, so I lost track of the notebook that I initially wrote this in, so
it is past dated, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Well, today my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) was absent so the
four classes I normally teach were canceled. It makes for a long day
of sitting at my desk when I don’t have any lessons. While I am not
exactly unhappy about this, the reason for my lack of remorse is
because today I normally teach the San-nen-sei (3rd year) at my
Chuugaku (Junior High School). Don’t get me wrong, on an individual
level in the hallways or after and before class, many students are
talkative, friendly and generally genki. Once class begins they might
as well be stone gargoyles for all the interaction I can get out of
them. Plus, there are usually 2-4 kids in each class that just want to
cause trouble. In addition to all this, the teacher asked me to plan a
lesson based on a section from the textbook with no guidance. I think
what I put together would have been alright, but it’s a relief not to
have to test it. I will cover more about this subject later, but for
now I want to catch you, dear reader, up on some of what I’ve been up
to the past few months.

I’m going to start with August. That was the first time I have had a
summer vacation where I didn’t have to pick berries, swath grass
fields or work in the cannery or call center since I was 10 years old.
It was pretty great. I did still have to work a little, though.

Two of my students were going to participate in a speech contest after
the break and I went in a half dozen or so times to work with them.
Hitoshi is a Ni-nen-sei (2nd year) students that had come and talked
with me during lunch a time or two every week for most of the year. He
wanted to speak English well and practiced a lot. From the time of our
first conversation until now, he has vastly improved.

I actually wrote the speech he was to give. I was about how and why he
read the newspaper every day and the impact it had on his life. We
would have about an hour to practice while he took a break from the
daily basketball practices. (They practice sports almost every day all
summer long)

The second student was Mio. Also a second year student, we did not get
as much time to work with each other because she was often sick. Her
speech was a recitation of a story called “Ghost Tempura”. Because of
our lack of practice, I was initially worried she would not be ready
for the contest. Come September, she would prove me wrong, but I am
getting ahead of myself.

Let’s go back to the start of summer vacation. I spent my time
relaxing and being lazy much of the time. I would get up in the late
morning, browse the internet or watch Olympic coverage on at the time.
I wasn’t able to catch a lot of the good events because of time
change, but I would always wake up early to watch the basketball game.
In the afternoons I would sit outside and read or find some other use
of my time. It was very hot and humid all summer- even at night it
wouldn’t cool down. Opening the window did little to lower the
temperature, so I would actually sleep with it closed and the A/C on.

The evenings were generally spent hanging out with Naho and a
neighboring ALT, Glenda. She is from Jamaica and was enjoying the heat
of summer quite a bit more than I. I purchased a Sno-cone maker and a
small BBQ, so they would often be put to use as the sun was going
down.

About the second weekend of vacation, Naho and I went to stay with her
parents back in Hiroshima. Naho’s cat had just died after twenty years
and her grandmother was ill in the hospital (in fact she would also
pass a few weeks later). We drove back this time which was interesting
because you cross a huge bridge spanning from my island (Shikoku) to
the largest of Japan’s four main islands. While crossing the bridge,
you have some amazing views. We especially did on the way back when
the sun was setting.

It was a fun trip. We went to a part with some of Naho’s cousins and
saw a few sights in the area. We also visited Naho’s grandmother a few
times and, strangely, she seemed to be more interested in me than
anyone else.

Well, a few weeks passed while I continued on in the same basic manner
I mentioned earlier; reading, watching TV, going to the beach on
weekends and the gym in the evening. In the middle of August, I went
to Osaka to see my friend and roommate from college, Eddie. Glenda and
I rode a bus for about 4 hours to get there. Naho and a few of her
friends that I also know came on the shinkansen (bullet train) later
that day.

Mostly It just hung out with Eddie the first day we were there. I was
nice to have an old friend to chill with. We ate lunch at the Hawaiian
restaurant he works part-time for and went to see the Avengers movie
that night. We met up with the girls later on and went out to karaoke.

The next day, we went to a concert. It was a pretty big thing. They
had four separate stages and bands performing from midday all the way
until about 11 o’clock that night. We tried to take a cab to the
grounds the concert was being held on, but because there was so much
traffic it took an hour to go the several miles to the concert
grounds.

Unfazed, we continued on with out day. After entering the grounds, we
found the main stage which was where we wanted to spend most of our
time. There were many popular American artists performing and many
Japanese groups as well. I only knew a few songs from each American
group and hadn’t heard of the Japanese ones, but it was still fun to
see for the most part.

About half way through the event the weather began to change from
sauna heat and humidity to very overcast and windy. Storm clouds
rolled in and a new show started to take place in the sky above. A
lightning storm started almost directly overhead it seemed. While I
found this to be possibly the most entertaining performance of the
day, it was getting dangerous. All of the acts currently on stage were
halted and people were directed to proceed to the stadium near
the center of the concert. As we were making our way through the
throngs of people, the clouds opened up in a torrential downpour. We
were close enough to the building that we got inside with only a
slight level of dampness, but many who entered behind us were
completely soaked.

After being stuck in the stadium with people jammed in like sardines
for about an hour and a half, the storm subsided enough to resume the
festivities. The grounds had been transformed. There were huge puddles
of water and a thick layer of mud all over the ground. The sky was
grey and dreary the rest of the day with occasional drizzles coming
down and keeping everything in a perpetual state of wetness. When we
finally got back to Eddie’s place, it was a relief to put on some dry,
clean clothes and grab a bite of food.

The next day we spent walking around Osaka and visiting some of the
nearby tourist attractions and stores. When we finally boarded the bus
to head back home, I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed
rather than on Eddie’s floor. I did have an enjoyable trip though.

The following weekend, there was a fireworks show in the nearby town
of Marugame. It is about 20 minutes away from my town. A group of ALTs
were getting together to watch the show and have a little party
afterwards. The fireworks were pretty spectacular. Even though this is
a relatively small town and an event of only moderate importance, the
display still outclassed more 4th of July events I have seen back
home.

A few days later, I went to the beach on an island near the biggest
city in my immediate area, Takamatsu. I took a ferry out to the island
with Naho, Glenda and Tamara (Glenda’s friend who is also from
Jamaica). Once there, we met Tamara’s husband, Nik.
Nik is an American about the same age as I am. He is a friendly guy
and invited me to play basketball with him that night. I was glad to
accept the invitation and pleased to have a group of people to play
with who were a bit better than the group I play with on Friday
night’s at my gym.

The final week of my summer vacation went by quickly and before I knew
it, the school year had started again. I got back in the swing of
things pretty quickly, but I sure did enjoy a real summer vacation for
the first time in a long time.

As I mentioned before, I had two kids practicing for a speech contest.
I was working with them almost everyday after school now. We would
practice pronunciation, flow of speech, gestures and volume. Mio
especially had trouble projecting. They both put in a lot of hard work
and improved tremendously by the time of the competition. Once the day
of the contest rolled around, I was confident they each had a chance
to win their category.

The contest was held in an old government building about 15 minutes
from the school. It was an interesting location because it seemed to
be quite out of the way. It was part way up a mountain, secluded from
any other buildings and surrounded by forest. There was even a
waterfall next to the parking lot.

The contest consisted of two parts, an original speech and a
recitation of a story. There were about a dozen kids in each category.
Most of the students in the event were older than mine, being 3rd
graders as opposed to 2nd years. Normally it is 3rd years that
compete, but the only students willing to volunteer were the two 2nd
years.
Mio’s category was first. She did excellent. I was very pleased and
proud. I couldn’t believe how much she had improved so quickly.
Sometimes parts of the speech sounded so good, they could almost have
been from a native speaker. Following Mio and the other reciting
students were the original speeches. Again, my pupil made me proud.
While not quiet as clear as Mio, Hitoshi also did very well.

After a brief deliberation period by the judges, the winners were
announced. Mio had won the recitation portion of the contest.
Unfortunately, Hitoshi did not finish in the top two, but I think he
must have been near them based on his scores. Still, Mio was moving on
to the prefecture contest a few weeks later.

The last weekend in September, a large group of ALTs in the area were
getting together in Marugame for a party. They like to throw theme
parties and this one was no different. It was an ABC (Anything But
Clothes) party. Basically, you were supposed to make an outfit out of
material other than clothing. I was a bit disappointed to see how many
people decided not to wear anything out of the norm, mostly because I
made an outfit because I though most people would. I didn’t want to
have to go through all that effort unnecessarily.

Naho actually helped make most of my outfit. It was a suit and tie
made out of garbage bags. It was loud, hot and not exactly form
fitting, but it worked. It was interesting to see the creative outfits
people had come up with. A few of the included shower curtain dresses,
newspaper dress, several togas, a box, sheet music, airline blankets
and probably more I didn’t see. The parties take place in a small club
that is usually pretty crowded so I don’t stay for too long.

Since then things have progressed along at more or less the same pace.
This past weekend Mio competed in the larger contest, but did not
place. I played basketball with Nik again for the first time since
August. Instead of playing with the recreational group like last time,
I practiced with the team that plays in an actual league.

They enter tournaments and have a league championship and are
generally similar to the Portland City League, but a little more
serious. The team actually starts their practice by running drills
before playing a few games. I hadn’t run a five man weave with a
3-on-2 back in years. It was the most intense basketball workout I
have had since high school. Just when I thought I couldn’t take much
more, they stopped running drills and started playing games. It was
fun. I am looking forward to joining them occasionally going forward.

Schools

I want to give you a run down of my schools so you can get a feel for
what I am up to on a daily basis.

The school I spend the most time at is a Chuugoku, or junior high
school, called Takuma JHS. I am there on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
and every other Thursday afternoon. I teach ichi-nen-sei, ni-nen-sei
and san-nen-sei. That translates to 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade, which are
the equivalent of 7th, 8th and 9th grade back home.

The vast majority of the kids are great, even if most are not
especially advanced in English. I usually am allotted the first 20-30
minutes of the 1st and 2nd grade lessons to do some kind of activity
before the JTE takes over and finishes the lesson. I don’t usually get
a lot of individual interaction with the students at this time, but
occasionally I do have a bit. The classes generally consist of 32
students, give or take one or two.

I typically have three 50 minute lessons on both Monday and Wednesday.
On Fridays, I have four lessons with the 3rd grade classes. They can
be tough. After trying to give me lessons and activities to use for
the first few weeks, the JTE just started asking me to play games with
the students instead.

That is all fine and dandy, but she never gives me any direction on
topic to cover or subject matter. I think I have done a pretty good
job, introducing half a dozen games with moderate to great success.
Often times, many of the students will not participate very much. I
have tried a lot of things to encourage them to and have made some
headway, but it can still be like pulling teeth just to get a
volunteer.

One class actually half heartedly responds to my greetings now. About
half of them will mutter, “Good morning Samu” and “I’m sleepy”. In the
other classes I will be lucky to get more than two responders.
Despite this trouble, the kids are great during lunch and cleaning
time. Because Japanese schools don’t have janitors, all students help
clean by doing a specific job every day. I sweep in the hallway and
get a chance to talk with other kids sweeping or students walking by.
I get to interact with them on a much more personal level, even though
our conversations rarely go any deeper than “what do you likes” and
“how are yous”. Most of the kids are very receptive and glad to talk
with me.

The staff at Takuma JHS is very friendly, but few of the teachers talk
to me. They are always super busy and most only speak a small amount
of English.

The rest of my schools are Shougakou, or elementary schools. I have
four of them in total, but I spend the most time at Takuma Elementary
School. I am there every Tuesday and teach five lessons. Each lesson
is 45 minutes long. I have three lessons with 5th grade classes and
two with 6th grade. These lessons are usually a lot of fun.

The 5th grade classes are a bit better usually because they only have
about 30 kids per class, whereas the 6th grades each have 42 students.
The school thankfully has an English room that all the lessons take
place it. It comes stocked with quite a bit of useful materials and a
large open space in which to move around a lot.

This past week, I taught a lesson to each of the younger grades also.
Twice a year they have asked me to teach a lesson to the entire 1st,
2nd, 3rd and 4th grades. The lesson this time was about Halloween.
Because of the class size, we had to have it in the cafeteria.
Each class increased in size, starting at 60 with the 1st grade and
then increasing to 72, 82 and 84 in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade
respectively. I had several activities, but was only able to et
through a portion of them in each 45 minute lesson. The younger kids
were super genki. They were enthusiastic, eager, happy and excited. It
was the first real interaction with me for many of them.

I eat lunch with a different class each week I am at Takuma ES. I just
finished the rotation of classes, starting at 6th and working down to
1st. It has been fun, but sometimes it is more draining than any of my
lessons. Just like kids back home, many of these ones show affection
by climbing all over you, hitting you or taking your chopsticks. Well,
the last one may not be as big of an issue back home, but you get the
idea.

One student in particular had an interesting way of showing me his
feelings. He is a 2nd grade boy and after we finished eating he ran
over and yelled something before firing off a fart louder than I
thought a kid his size could ever make. The most impressive/disturbing
thing- he did it again about a minute later.

The staff here are also very kind and friendly, but even less speak
English. I have very little time to interact with them though because
I only have one period off and usually spend it regrouping and
recouping for my final 2 lessons.

After the weekly visits to Takuma ES, my stops get a little sparser. I
spend half a day at three different elementary schools on a rotating
schedule. For example, the first Thursday of a month I will spend the
morning at Matsusaki Elementary School and the afternoon and Takuma
JHS. The next Thursday, I spend the morning at Oohama Elementary and
the afternoon at Hakoura Elementary. This pattern repeats itself
continually.

The largest of these three schools is Matsusaki ES. The average class
size is closer to 28 students, which is nice even if it is just a few
less. It is also the closest school to my home, being about 10 minutes
away.

I teach three lessons there every other week. The latter two periods
are always the 5th and then 6th grade (Matsusaki only has one of each
grade), but the first lesson alternates between each of the lower
grades in descending order from 4th to 1st. All the kids are great.
They are probably the most consistently good students. The staff is
also very friendly. The Tea Lady always brings me a cup of coffee or
tea when I arrive. I don’t have the heart, or ability, to tell her I
hate coffee and don’t particularly like green tea.

After Matsusaki, things get a bit different. Thursday morning are
spent at Oohama ES. The entire school consists of 20 students and it
is located a short way out of town on the peninsula. I have three
lessons at this school. The first lesson is with a combination of the
3rd and 4th grade with the 1st grade mixing in every other lesson.
There are no 2nd graders. So depending on the week, I will have
between 8 and 11 students in this lesson.

The next lesson is with the 5th grade which has a grand total of 4
students. This can make things difficult because I have to make
entirely different lessons for them as opposed to being able to use
the same basic lesson at both Takuma and Matsusaki ES. That can be
challenging because the teacher sometimes forgets to send me the
lesson plans that I plan around in advance. And, if the kids are tired
like they were last week, man you can forget about the lesson you came
up with and just have to find a way to try to get them awake and
engaged. Often it is a good class all the same.

The 6th grade is usually a bit more energetic and enthusiastic. Plus
it has 25% more students. They are a lot of fun as well.
The staff at this school speaks almost no English, so I don’t do much
chitchatting there. That plus the fact that the teacher has routinely
failed to send the lesson plans and the lower level of genki-ness in
the first two periods make this my least favorite school.

Thursday afternoons are spent at another small school even farther out
on the peninsula. I have to hustle over there after lunch at Oohama ES
which means I am driving on the super narrow, very windy road with a
finite amount of time before I have to get there.

I teach just two lessons at Hakoura ES, which has the whopping
enrollment of 19. The first lesson will be a combined 1st/2nd grade or
3rd/4th grade. It alternates with each visit. These lessons will have
5-9 kids in them. The final lesson of the day is with the joint
5th/6th graders. These kids are often the most genki I have. They are
fun and enthusiastic. We move through our lessons at a very quick clip
and are ahead of any other school.

Well, this has been a brief glimpse into my daily work life. I want to
try to post some videos of various mundane activities like grocery
shopping and what not so you can see what I am up to outside of school
as well.

It is nearly lunch time now, which means I put in nearly 4 hours of
writing so far today. I’ll take a break and hopefully transcribe this
to the computer soon. If you were able to get through the whole thing
in one sitting, I applaud you. I didn’t think it would be that
interesting. If you weren’t able to get through it all, I will try to
keep future posts shorter, but more frequent.

10/30/12

Picking up where I left off, I played basketball that weekend like I
mentioned and things went along at a pretty normal pace for the rest
of that week. It was more or less what you would expect.

That weekend (October 21), was the 49th day after Naho’s grandmother
had passed away. Naho’s family has been doing everything in the
traditional Japanese style regarding a lost family member. On the 49th
day, her spirit stops being around the family and goes on to its final
resting place. It is interesting because during the initial 49 days
when her spirit is around, the family is not supposed to kill anything
because her spirit may be present in it. That includes bugs, spiders
and any and all other manner or pests or creatures.

On the 49th day, to honor her spirit and send it on its journey, the
family gathers at the home of the deceased. A Buddhist monk comes over
and a ceremony is performed. There is a small shrine that has been
built to display the ashes of the departed as well as a picture,
incense, food and flowers. The family all kneel behind the monk who is
in front of the shrine.

The monk begins the ceremony by ringing a bell-type instrument by
striking it with a stick and starting to chant. The family all chant
along, following from books the monk has passed out. Everyone is
holding a bracelet of beads while they do so. The chanting continues
for about 15 minutes or so before everyone stops. At that point, the
monk passes a lit coal and bowl of incense to the most important
person at the ceremony. That person then sprinkles a few bits of
incense on the coal and bows their head n a moment of solitary prayer
before passing the incense on.

After the ceremony, everyone eats a traditional meal. The meals are
prepared by a caterer and most of the guests had matching courses. To
make it a bit more manageable, they were gracious enough to get a meal
that contained meat instead of seafood. There is beer and tea
available to drink, but I was driving home so I stuck with the tea.

I spent some time playing video games with Naho’s young cousin, Haru,
and talking with one of her great-uncles. He speaks English fairly
well, so we could converse more than I had with any one else in her
family. He was drinking beer with Naho’s grandfather though, so
occasionally things would get lost in translation and we didn’t quite
know what was being said. It was very interesting though. He makes
traditional Japanese walls and doors. The ones you see in movies that
are a layer of thick paper between crisscrossing sections of wood.
After the meal was finished, I drove back home.

The rest of the week went along as normal, except on Thursday I had the head of the
Hiroshima Branch of Interac come out and observe one of my lessons. It
went very well and afterwards the JTE was telling us how the kids are
always very excited for the days that we will have English lessons
together. I was glad to hear some positive feedback like that.

This past Saturday, my JHS had a music festival type thing. Each
class, as well as the teachers, sang a song. I didn’t understand any
of the lyrics, but they sounded alright. At the end, awards were
handed out, but again, I am not entirely sure what was said or why
certain people got them.

After the concert, I hopped on a train and took off to Osaka. I was
meeting up with Eddie, Naho and a few other friends who were already
there. It was Halloween weekend so we all dressed up. Our group went
as characters from the Super Mario games. It was a lot of fun, but I
was very tired from having to get up early for the music concert. By
the time the night was half over and everyone wanted to go to karaoke,
I was dead on my feet. I sat down in the karaoke booth and promptly
passed out without singing a single song. That is probably for the
best though; it saved everyone from hearing me sing.

Regardless of that, I still had a good time and enjoyed myself. It was
good to see Eddie, who I had not seen since August, and my other
friends as well.

Alright, well that basically sums up the past couple weeks once again.
I hoped on the computer here at work because I have no lessons
scheduled once again to actually type it all up this time. It got me
through a fair chunk of the day, too.