A Day in the Life

Thursday was my last day of Elementary School lessons this term- this year, actually (reminder: the Japanese school year starts in April and ends in May). It was a pretty funny day (both ha-ha-funny and interesting-funny). Some people have asked what a typical day is like for me. I've had difficulty figuring out how to describe a typical day, but my last day at Elementary School two days ago will give you a good idea of just how random my school days can be, because I would describe it as pretty typical of my experience in Japan over the past 3 years. :-)

Okay. Here we go. This past Thursday I went to Myoukaku Elementary School, the largest Elementary School in my town (roughly 200 students). Most of the grades at Myoukaku have 2 classes for each grade, and when I go to elementary school I typically do English lessons for 2 grades, 4 classes in all. On Thursday I was set to teach 3rd and 4th grade. When I got to school, I looked up at the board where the days events, etc, are written, and saw that 4th grade had been wiped off my schedule. Class 3-1 was marked for me for 1st-hour and class 3-2 was marked for 3rd-hour. Shortly after I sat down, the Vice Principal came around and apologized for the change in my schedule, then handed me the day's time table. The morning classes had been shortened to 40-minutes each (normally 45-minutes) and afternoon classes had been cancelled. The students were going home after lunch. A bit of a surprise, but with 6th grade graduation coming up next week, as well as the end of the school year, after 2-years of finding these kinds of last-minute scheduling changes common, (at least last minute for me; the regular teachers might have known about them in advance because they can actually read the circulated memos) it was no problem to roll with the punches. Only 2 classes for the day....okay, good thing I brought along the TIME magazine someone had given me only days ago, as well as my Japanese text book! Looked like I was going to have a LOT of free time on my hands during the day!

Shortly after talking to the Vice Principal, I heard her go over to one of the special needs teachers and tell her that if the special needs classes had any time during the morning that they wanted to integrate English into the classtime, that they should feel free to do so. Then the 3-1 homeroom teacher came up to me and explained that they were running behind on finishing their class mural for the 6th graders graduation ceremony, so her class was going to need to use the English-class hour to work on their mural, but that I should come and help them. Okay, no sweat.....then the special needs teacher went up to the scheduling board and added to my schedule a visit to her class for 2nd hour. I had been at school for all of about 15-minutes and now I was teaching only 1 pre-planned English class, helping do crafts for another, and now had to scramble to figure out what to teach special needs with the materials I'd brought for regular 3rd and 4th grade classes. :-)

Time came for 1st-hour to start, and as expected, 2 students came to the teachers' room to escort me to class. Except they took me to class 3-2 instead of class 3-1. No worries, class 3-2 was supposed to be the one regular class of the day, although the surprise change to 1st hour from 3rd hour made me a little apprehensive as I walked into the room that the teacher was going to spring another surprise on me. :-) No surprises; I was able to go along with my originally scheduled plan for an end of term quiz game - like team-challenge Othello (I show a picture and the first team to raise their hand and answer correctly in English gets a square on the grid I've drawn on the chalkboard. That same team chooses the next square to play and can attack another team's squares if they get the chance. I borrowed the game from one of my JHS English teachers and adapted for Elementary students. ;-D ).

2nd-hour came along, and 3 students from special needs showed up to collect me, including one student I hadn't had a chance to teach at all this term (hmm). When I walked into the classroom, all 6 special needs students (ranging from grades 1-6) were there. I hadn't had more than 3 students max in any of my special needs classes over the course of the term. "This was going to be interesting," I thought. But, I was saved from having to do adlib English lesson by one of the teachers who immediately started in a speech that went something along the lines of "Class together with you was a surprise for us today too. So I hope you don't mind, we cooked some broccoli that our class grew together this term and are going to eat it during this class. I hope you like broccoli, Mandy! Please eat with us! Just a minute..." Suddenly all the students and teachers disappeared to the room nextstore and came back with dishes, small forks, mayonnaise and salad dressing, and a big bowl full of boiled broccoli. So, we ate broccoli. Then the students all had to stand up and give a little speech about what they enjoyed about studying English this term (and all us teachers tried to pry out whatever vocabulary words they remembered whenever we could work it in). And then we played everybody's favorite "Ask Mandy Questions" game until class was over. Alright, 2 down, 1 to go.

3rd hour.....again, 2 students came to collect me, we walked into the classroom, I said good morning to everyone, then they all grabbed their scissors, glue and origami paper and suddenly everyone was filing out of the room. I wasn't quite sure where we were going, but okay, I followed along. We went to the building out back that until last year was also used as classroom space. Class 3-1 was using one of the now empty classrooms as their staging area to make their mural. I spent the next 40-minutes learning how to make origami roses and tulips, and cutting out pre-printed outlines of cherry blossoms. We weren't able to finish the cherry blossom petals, so I took the extra pink construction paper back to the teachers' room and finished up during 4th hour. After lunch, the third grade teachers asked me to help them finish gluing the cherry blossoms to the mural. Once we finished that, we took the mural down to the gym and worked the logistics of hanging it up. And then it was time for me to call it a day. :-)

March 2009

Time to catch you all up! March is only...actually, not even half over, but here's what's been on tap so far this month. On March 1st I headed into Tokyo, Roppongi to be precise, with my salsa class, to practice live what we've been learning over the past 5-6 months. If I ever get my hands on my classmate's photos from the club (called "El Cafe Latino"), I'll post them. My only personal pictures are from the dinner we went to together beforehand at a Chinese restaurant. Please take careful note of the decorations...and that this place was our teacher's choice. :-) We all just followed along lemming-style.

"The Spider" at Roppongi Hills, a popular meeting point, for obvious reasons. Tokyo Tower is in the background.

Hari, Gero (our 'sensei') and last minute addition, frequent Tokyo salsa club goer, Yuki.Anna, on the left, I'd never met before, but she's a friend of Lucia's (middle) from Poland. They are on the same internship program. Sabi is on the right.Yuki, Gaspar and Sonit.

Please focus your attention for the next two photos on the restaurant's unique decoration scheme.

Ah, I hear "Salsa class?!? What?!" coming over the Ethernet. As fits with the rest of my life, here's the story on this random occurrence:

While sitting at a local tavern (I'm calling it that because it sounds more fantasy-esque, good for story-telling) last September, a friend of a friend of a friend suddenly asked me and my friend Laura (also an Assistant Language Teacher) if we like to dance salsa. Gero (as this friend of a friend of a friend is named, I eventually learned) loves to dance salsa, and while he was in Japan doing his 6-month internship with BOSCH (in Higashi-Matsuyama, a city about 20 minutes east of my town, where Laura and all the other class members live), he thought he might teach a salsa dance class if he could find anyone interested. He'd already talked to a few fellow interns, but needed a few more girls. Laura and I were game, so last October-ish, we became honorary members of the BOSCH intern crew and helped start up the salsa class. There are only about 8 members, but we've been meeting once a week almost every week, braving the cold karate practice room to master whatever dance steps Gero thinks he can teach us. Seeing as how foreigners are rare in my town, it's been fun to hang out with people from different parts of the globe again. Gero is from Germany, as is Sabi (one of the other girls, although her family is originally from Turkey). Brian is American, but was born in Germany and is currently doing his Masters degree there. Laura is a New Yorker, Lucia is Italian, Gaspar is Spanish, Hari is from Sri Lanka and Sonit is from India.

The first week in March was a bit crazy, as I had three Elementary School days instead of the usual one. When the Junior High Schools have mid-term/end-of-term tests, instead of having the ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) sit on their butts and do nothing for two days, the Education Office at the Town Hall assigns us to Elementary Schools. So I went to Elementary School the Monday and Tuesday, as well as the usual day, Thursday. I LOVE going to Elementary School because I get to plan the lessons and be the primary teacher, not just an assistant (interact! engage!), and the kids are usually super enthusiastic and participatory. My voice hasn't been the same since that week though! And although I feel more comfortable planning and following through on ES English lessons now than I did my first year, I still freak out a little before each ES day, worried that the lesson isn't going to be interesting enough or that I won't be able to get across to the students (or their homeroom teacher!) what I want to teach for the 45-minute lesson.

The weekend of March 6-8, I headed out just over the border of the Tokyo-area into Chiba Prefecture, near the Tokyo Disney Park, (and this is going to make the most sense only to those of you in the Munson family) to visit Anah's former host-daughter, Tomoko, and Tomoko's family. Ever since arriving in Japan, I've done an annual pilgrimage with Tomoko's family (they have 3 boys, now ranging from 2nd grade Elementary School to 2nd grade Junior High School) to Disneyland.

Thai and Laksmi at the ticket area.

Inside the park.

Thai in his go-kart; a favorite ride of the boys'. And, there's Laksmi.

Laksmi and Thai in the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House.

Tomoko and the boys patiently waiting for Mandy to get her butt out of the tree house.

Where to go next?!....

Tomoko and Laksmi hanging out in Toon Town.
Waiting our turn for the Toon Town roller coaster...as it zooms along behind Thai.
I love that this is a common sight at Disneyland in Tokyo! :-D How many un-inebriated guys could you get to wear Minnie Mouse ears all day in public in the States?!

This past week I had soft volleyball practice, my weekly Japanese lesson, went to dinner at my favorite Indian restaurant with an old teacher friend (which is a big deal not only because of my rural location, but because my Japanese friends so rarely have free time to do stuff like go to dinner!) and of course today's graduation ceremony and post-graduation teacher dinner party. I also had to buy, package and hand out gifts this week for the 3rd grade students according to the number of points they got this term in English class, before they all vanished. Tomorrow I'll be doing my weekly visit to Poponoki to do my organic shopping, as well as hit up tennis practice again for the first time since January!

For those of you who have been trying to cast spells on me to get me to blog more often, there's a little rundown of why my blogs are few and far between. For some reason, even out in rural Japan, I seem to find myself oddly busy. And since last summer, when I'm not busy, I've wound up sick. So when I find myself not busy or sick, I usually end up sleeping because I'm worn out from being sick or busy. ;-P A normal week of non-school activities usually runs as follows: Sunday- tennis. Monday- salsa. Tuesday- basketball with BOSCHers. Wednesday- no weekly activity, but must prep for Thursday's Elementary School lesson. Thursday- Japanese lesson. Friday- no weekly activity, but prone to surprise engagements. Saturday- no weekly activity, but something always comes up. Even if it doesn't, I have to hit the laundry and household chores hard, since it's usually the only day I have to do stuff around the house when it isn't already cold and dark (my washing machine is outside). And like I said, that's a normal week's schedule. Random stuff gets thrown in here and there that keeps me away from even the regularly scheduled activities on a frequent basis. :-D I'm always forming blog ideas in my head, but the getting them typed just get on the agenda often enough!

Of course this is all supposed to sound incredibly impressive, but is basically a catharsis for me to not feel so guilty about blogging so infrequently (hee hee).

Graduation Day

I know, I know, so I'm not even going to go there anymore. :-)


I've posted a LOT of photos in this blog, and I'm gonna apologize upfront for the bad quality of most of them. I was trying to be as unobtrusive as possible in taking the photos, hence often did not use flash (when it was obviously needed). Disclaimer #2: Not that most of you will know the difference (I sure didn't when I first arrived in Japan!), but in labelling photos of students, I sometimes used first names, sometimes last names, depending on what was easier for me to remember for any given student. :-P So for those of you who know, there's the reasoning behind the idiosyncrasies. ;-)

Today was Junior High School graduation day in my town. I'm sure I've blogged about this in past years, but I don't remember what I wrote, if anything, so here we go again...maybe. I tried to do a photo journal today of the Japanese graduation process, so I wanna share regardless of repetition. :-)

Let's go back a few days first.

On Tuesday, the 1st and 2nd grade (JHS) students had what they call a good-bye "party" for the 3rd grade (JHS) students (this happens every year). It's more like an interactive assembly. The party goes on all morning until lunch-time. Everyone gathers in the gym, and the 1st and 2nd graders do some sort of performance for/in honor of the 3rd graders. This year the 1st graders sang songs, then did a performance of probably THE most popular and widely known traditional dance in Japan. I guess you could say it's an old fisherman work song (I have no idea what it's really called). The 3rd graders called 'encore' (which they pronounce as 'on-co-ray' over here) at the end of the dance and made the 1st graders do it again. I'd never seen THAT happen before, and it was pretty funny, especially as the 1st graders looked a little out-of-breath after the first round. :-)

1st graders singing

'Fishing' dance: I tried to upload the video here, but couldn't make it work. I'll try to upload it in a different blog.

The second graders also sang a song, then recreated the team cheer performances done at last summer's sports festival.

Next was a farewell message by video from all the school club groups. Following that was a slide show of photos of the 3rd graders from all 3 years of their JHS career. The slide show is usually the most popular part of the party. The students are usually about 12 years old when they start JHS and are 15 years old when they finish, so as you can imagine, they change quite a bit over those 3 years. The photos from their 1st year of JHS always get a huge response. :-)

The 3rd graders always wrap up the party. This year a few of the emcee girls went around and did a bit of a quiz show with the audience. Then the 3rd grade students got up on stage and sang a very commercially popular Japanese song called, "Letters" by Angela Aki, a song and artist I actually know!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jFd8oa-1ms

Today is Saturday the 14th. The JHS graduation ceremony is usually held on the 15th of March, but because it is a Sunday this year, it was held a day early (we get Monday off as a substitute holiday, yay!). The graduation ceremony in Japan always makes me smile, because it's so formal. Even the Elementary School graduation ceremony is formal. There's a set protocol for how you walk to the stage, how you accept the graduation certificate...of course there are multiple days of practice for the ceremony prior to the big day.

The gym was cleaned and decorated by the 2nd grade students over the course of the last 2 hours of the day yesterday (Friday).

Parents and the lower grades filing in before the 3rd graders' entrance.

Mr. Hoshino, the music teacher, guides the 1st and 2nd graders through singing practice 10-minutes before the 3rd graders arrive. The practice is punctuated with reminders from Mr. Hoshino that this is the 3rd graders very last day/memory of junior high school, so the lower grades need to do their best...as well as using the psychology of 'when you are 3rd graders you'll want the lower grades to give their best for you too'. :-D

The local dignitaries arrive.

The stage is set for the 39th annual Tokigawa Junior High School Graduation Ceremony.

Class 3-1 enters behind their homeroom teacher, the "mysterious" Mr. Koyama.

Class 3-2 enters behind Mrs. Iizuka. I've been told that it's tradition for a female 3rd grade homeroom teacher to wear a tradition kimono for the graduation ceremony. But I don't know why, and I don't know why only the female teachers...

First, Mr. Hoshino and a student accompanist lead all those in attendance in singing the Japanese national anthem (but I didn't take a picture because I wasn't sure it would be kosher to be snapping away during the national anthem...). Next, two 3rd graders lead everyone in singing the school song (Youhei Suzuki is directing in the photo below; I couldn't see the pianist from my seat).

Very little time is lost getting underway on handing out diplomas (which, incidentally, are hand-made by the students themselves. Several months prior, local Japanese traditional paper-making professionals come to the school and help the students make their own diploma paper).

Mr. Takagi, the 3rd grade Science teacher, hands the diplomas over to Mr. Takahashi, the principal.

It's a well-oiled machine, the diploma ceremony. The homeroom teacher stands off to the side at the bottom of the stage and reads the students' names into a microphone. There are always at least 5 students up and moving at all times during the process. One student is in front of the podium on the stage accepting their diploma from the principal. As soon as that student steps up to the podium, the next student in line walks up the stairs to the edge of the stage. When student 1 has accepted their diploma (left hand first on the left side of the paper, then the right hand, hold the diploma at head level, bow to the principal, take one step back to join the next student in line...), the two students stand side-by-side, bow together, then student 1 (in military-type fashion) turns to exit the stage, putting the diploma under their arm. Student 2 steps up to the podium. While student 1 and 2 are on the stage, student 3 has walked up to the edge of the stairs below the stage, and student 4 has walked onto the red carpet and stopped about five paces behind student 3. There is a student ahead of student 1 as well, exiting the stage, bowing to the dignitaries or teachers (depending on the side of the stage they exit from), and putting their diploma in a tray with all the other accepted diplomas, before they return to their seat (this is to keep the diplomas clean and safe until the students return to their homeroom class after the ceremony and put them in folders). The boys of class 3-1 went first, then the girls. Then class 3-2 boys and girls. As you can see from other photos, the students are seated separately by gender.

After handing out the diplomas, which actually goes quite quickly, someone from the dignitary section hands a box to a student chosen as a representative for the entire 3rd grade class. I've never figured out (or asked, for that matter) if there is something in the box, or if the box is merely symbolic of something...). Following the mystery box, there is a series of speeches. First, the principal. Next, a representative from the Town Hall. After that, the Mayor (or Vice-Mayor...Deputy Mayor, whatever you call #2). There was another speaker after the Mayor, I think,...maybe someone from the PTA? Second-to-last is the 2nd grader who will is to become the new Student Government President. Last is the outgoing Student Government President. The last two speeches are done to live piano accompaniment, which makes me smile. Milking the emotional moment for all it's worth. By the end of the outgoing SGP's speech, it never fails that half the gymnasium is in tears. My immunity is my language barrier. :-D Pictured below is the outgoing SGP, Yuya Yamaguchi.

Following the wrap-up of the speeches, the 3rd graders sing their farewell song. Mrs. Iizuka (the 3-2 homeroom teacher...also one of the P.E. teachers) represents well the state of half the 3rd grade students (and teachers...and parents...and a surprising number of 1st & 2nd grade students...) by the time they have to sing their song.

Yuuji Takenoya directs the 3rd graders in their farewell song. After the 3rd graders' song, a new director and accompanist from the 3rd grade class take the stage and lead the entire student body in a final song. This final performance is always quite amazing. Regardless of how practices went, by this point in the ceremony, the students find something from the depths to come out sounding like a well-trained church choir. It's really beautiful.

I know nothing about the process of choosing students to act as song directors, but no one is immune from learning this art. Yuuji is the former baseball team captain, played for the JHS All-Stars All-Japan Team in last summer's JHS Asia Cup, and is definitely more the sportsman-type. Yet there he is up on the stage, swaying his arms to the music, guiding harmony and all. I'm still trying to come up with a mental picture of that happening at an American JHS...

After the final all-student body song, the 3rd grade teachers (there were 4 this year, the 2 homeroom teachers already mentioned, plus the teachers for the three special needs students that graduated this year) stand in front of the stage as the 3rd graders call out "Arigato gozaimashita" (thank you very much) in unison and processional out of the gym.

All the students head back to their homerooms for about half-an-hour (during which time, I have no idea what they do). Then comes the time when the graduates leave the school for the last time.

All the 1st graders, 2nd graders and teachers line up along the 'exitway' to say their final good-byes. The graduates sometimes exchange letters and presents with the lower-grade students with whom they were friends/in the same after-school club. It's tradition for the graduates to give away parts of their uniform if the lower-grade students ask for something like the buttons on the boys' jackets or the girls' scarves.

With probably the 2 biggest bookworms of the 3rd graders. Kanae is on the left, Mizuki on the right. I love them because they totally remind me of me at their age! They were pretty darn good at English too. :-)

Three of my favorite 3rd grade boys...well, okay, they were ALL my favorite students to be honest! These 3 were always high energy and talkative. :-) Haruki on the left, Youhei in the middle, Junpei on the right.

Outgoing SGP, Yuya Yamaguchi and Nishida, being happy about the farewell Obama sticker I just gave him (hee hee).

Hiroki, Michiru, Mami, Chitose and Ezawa.

3rd grade class clown, Daiki on the left. His 2nd grade protege, Katsuya on the right. Their equilibrium is in the middle, 2nd grader Sugiuchi.

From here on down are random shots I took during the breaks of the graduation practice session we held yesterday (Friday).

Yuuji Takenoya doing his duty refilling the giant gym space heaters.

Kanae and Makie conversing with English teacher, Mr. Fukushima.

Sugita, Maho, Kanami, Chitose and Miyahara.

Shiori, Sena (English speech contest participant), Nanami and Marina.

Mio (who took me under her wing last winter during a VERY long break at a festival in her neighborhood and invited me back to her house to hang out with her family while we waited for the festival to resume!) and Michiru.

3rd grade boys...described at this evening's post-graduation party by more than one teacher as "mountain monkeys." :-D

3rd grade girls.

2nd grade boys.

2nd grade girls, Arisa (who is literally my neighbor), Narumi and Chinami. I've gone skiing with Narumi and Chinami on the town ski trip 2 years running now (I'm sure, much to their dismay...;-) ).

1st grade boys.

I love this photo simply for the ghost uniform in the middle. ;-)

3rd graders Masaki (in the back on the left), Araki, Yoshimitsu (my adopted little brother ;-) ), and I do believe that would be Youhei again on the right (without a face).

3rd grade girls Yuki, Natsuko and Manayu. Manayu is the town JHS sports stud. She's gone to the All-Japan track tournament 2-years in a row (as a 100-meter and 200-meter sprinter), and made it onto the prefectural relay team this year. She's also come in top 5 the past two years in the prefectural Ski Tournament in the Alpine race. Her father was my ski instructor during the town ski trip this year!

Horse-play. Takao, Kazuki, Shogo and Tokimitsu.

Masaki #2, Kazunobu (a.k.a. Mr. Star Wars) and Yuma.

These poor boys, Negishi and Chiba, have never lived down my labelling of them 2 years ago as the most adorable in their class. When they were 1st graders, they were 2 of the 3 smallest boys in their class, and in the beginning, for the life of me, I could not remember which was which. Of course they look nothing alike to me now (although you can't tell from this picture...).

This group of 3rd graders were stand-out from year 1 as very positively energetic in and out of class, and thank goodness for that! Love 'em all for helping me quickly feel welcome in Tokigawa. Junpei, Hiroki, Yuuhei, Masaya, Akitaka, Takuya and Kenta.

The silent yet engaging group. Asari, Yuudai, Shouhei (one of the special needs students) and Okano (the 3rd of the 'most adorable' boys I couldn't tell apart my first year and a half).

Sayaka (whose family runs one of the Buddhist temples in town), Mio and Miyako.

Takahito, another of the special needs graduates (he has Down's Syndrome). Totally adorable! He did his lion impression for me for this photo.

1st grade students, Ayaka, Reika and Yuki.