Today marks the first time I’ve visited all my schools. The school I’m currently in, Tsuwazaki Elementary, is the last first visit. It started out interesting enough. Usually, there’s a taxi waiting for me when I go to any other than my Uonome ones. However, this morning the taxi wasn’t there. So I called Urahama sensei and got him to fix the situation. 15 minutes later, a taxi came by and drove me here. Tsuwazaki is about 45 minutes away from Aokata, so I ended up falling asleep along the way. I remember coming here on August 21st when I toured my school for self introductions. This was the school that I never really did a proper one because they were moving ping pong tables or something.
When I got dropped off, I entered what seemed to be an empty school. After all, it’s a huge school and it only houses 10 students, 3 teachers, 1 nurse, and 2 principals. So I ended up wandering the first floor until I heard some talking, which led me to the teacher’s lounge. I sit on the far end of the staff room (signifies my importance in this school). Good thing about this placement is that no one can see what I do on my computer. Bad thing is, I’m far away from everything else (power cords, router, etc). However, there’s a pc behind me I can use to check email. There’s a filter on it that doesn’t allow certain sites. However, the server is sitting right next to it, unsecured. I can just go in there and change permissions for me to have unlimited access. Unfortunately, I’m too far from the router to actually run a cable to it. Besides, I don’t think they’d appreciate it too much if the new guy was just bumming around on their server machine.
The view from my desk
Since this school only has 10 students, I teach the entire school at once for a period. Today was very simple self introduction lesson. We first started with learning how to janken, followed by studying months. Afterwards, they lined up in order of their birthday without speaking. They then proceeded to say their birthday in English to me. We got into the circle soon after that little birthday game so that the students can do their jiko shokai (self introduction) to me. When it got to my turn, that’s when I did my whole self intro with the pictures, maps, money, etc. The whole class, the other teachers were watching and taking pictures. The last 10 minutes of class I used for asking favorite foods, anime, animals. I managed to get all of them to answer sometime. They then asked me questions like favorite Japanese food, surprising things I found in Japan, do you like something something, etc. When class was over, we all changed into our sports gear to practice for their sports festival. Outside we ran relay and raced each other. I had to show my sports finesse by losing to a 6th grader. The sun was unyielding out there, not a cloud in the sky. After burning myself for 30 minutes, I came back in for a 10 minute break before heading out again to practice their dance. I didn’t do anything, but baked with the rest of them as I watched them perform a dance that mimicked fisherman action of this island. It was very interesting to say the least.
Lunch prep with half the student body
Lunch followed soon afterwards where all the students ate at the lunch room. I sat with the 5th and 6th graders (all 4 of them). They were a little hesitant to talk at first, but I started asking about video games and they opened up like a book. The lunch wasn’t too bad, some curry rice, potatoes with mayo and some soup with cabbage. Not the best, but at least I knew what I was eating this time.
The school yard
After lunch, they have 20 minutes to brush their teeth and rest for a bit before recess time. All the students play together at this school. The game was soccer, in the 90+ degree heat. At least there was the ocean breeze no more than 100 yards from us. You know how long it’s going to take me to untan with this kind of sun every week? I’m guessing sometime in June when I get back to my normal color. I wanted to be the cool teacher and let the kids play their game while I goal tend (actually, I didn’t want to run). However, I subbed in the kids on my team who were tired to play keeper. I scored 2 goals from about 40 yards out because I didn’t feel like running closer. I would also just pass the ball in the big crowd of children because I have no idea who’s on my team.
After baking in the sun, again, for about an hour, we headed back in to clean the school. It’s almost 100 in the hall ways, I’m drenched in sweat, and I’m sweeping the floor with the 4th graders. Even though I hated doing so, I changed to my work clothes, the long sleeves and slacks just to get out of the sweat drenched clothes I had on. My taxi came at 3:45pm so I sat in the office for about an hour and 15 minutes in work clothes and non working air conditioner.
Wednesdays are always my favorite days. This school, albeit far away, is a very nice, very scenic school. The small size allows me to remember the children and to interact with them on more of a personal level. The two 6th graders will be going to my Junior high come January, so I want to be able to get involved with their school lives now. When they do move up to junior high, they’ll see a familiar face.
On another topic, the date I had with the school counselor last Saturday. Before moving on, let me fill you in on how all of this came about in the first place. During my enkai at Kita-Uonome, I only noticed this lady when they were mentioning something about my relationship status. It was actually her that asked me if I had a girlfriend. When I told her I was single, everyone started laughing and pointing out the single people in the room. One of them happened to be her. This happened half way through the enkai, and I only noticed her then (she was sitting across from me). A topic of conversation on churches came up during the enkai. I told them I was catholic and wondered where the churches were on the island. After the enkai, we went drinking (some more) at a snack bar. We drank sochu and sang karaoke. I asked to take a couple pictures with the group before we left. That’s the background story.
The following Tuesday, she came in the afternoon to be school counselor for the children. I was already finished with my classes for the day so I went up to see her. We talked about the enkai and I showed her pictures in my camera. There’s a blog about this whole thing on a previous entry.
So, Saturday rolls around with no rain. I send her a text around 8:30am asking if we’re going that day. She messages me back that it’s a go. She came around 2pm to pick me up. Since it’s a first date, we really didn’t do anything deep or involving, just had fun. We went to three churches that day. That may not seem like a lot, but there’s plenty of distance in between each. I used this opportunity to get to know her. She’s pretty good at understanding English, but her speaking is not very good. So I would end up speaking English/Japanese to her to get my point across. We had lots of fun in the car, lots of laughing, joking around, telling stories, etc. One thing I had to confirm was if she was single. I might have misunderstood something like she is a single mother or she has a single child. Any of those would be bad news for me. How I worked it out without sounding like a desperate fool was this. When we were touring our first church, I asked her “What church did you get married in?” She replied “Eh? I’m not married!” I responded “What? I thought you were, you don’t even have a boyfriend?” She replied “No, no boyfriend.” There you have it, smooth as silk.
During our conversations in the car, I was able to get some information about her. First of all, she’s 31. She’s been living on the island pretty much her whole life. She went to the high school here. It’s interesting that one of my ALT supervisors is also 31 and went to that high school, maybe they know each other. She has 3 jobs. She runs a tea shop from her home on her free time, she tutors math to elementary and junior high students and she’s the school counselor at Kita-Uonome junior high school. Another thing I had to confirm was her schedule. Would we be able to meet up often? How I asked was telling her that I played a game with my students to practice English. It was what do you do on what day. So I told her to “practice” with me. I found out what kind of schedule she had that way. On most days, she wakes up late in the morning and either a.) runs her tea shop or b.) have tutoring class. On Tuesdays she comes in to school in the afternoon. The day she’s most available is Saturday where she tells me she doesn’t know what she does during the afternoon. Sometimes she opens shop or just sit around. So now I know when I can ask to do something.
She also told me she was in judo (the only girl in the club) and went to China 3 times before. She went to college right after high school, but stopped after 2 years because “it wasn’t fun”. She went back at age 25 and finished her degree when she turned 29. After graduation, she landed her counseling job at the school. During her time off from college, she worked at George’s bar (the one I go to often). When I told her I knew George, she laughed and told me that he makes good pizza.
We spent a good 4 hours visiting 3 churches, but most of it was driving around the island talking. I asked her if it was ok to do something next Saturday and she said ok. I have yet to call her and ask her to do something. Maybe tonight I’ll call and ask to go to the beach (she said she hasn’t gone all summer). I’m not sure if the jellyfish are around this time of year though. That or offer to take her to volleyball night in Arikawa.
