A Japanese wedding

A Japanese Wedding


On October 13th, I attended a wedding of a friend of mine named Taichiro. A good month before that he invited all the ALTs to an engagement party to celebrate the wedding that was coming. The party itself was fun because he held it at George’s House, the place I met him. The owner, George, made a lot of food that I liked because he knew I was coming. No one else complained because how can you go wrong with chicken with fries? He also prepared some beef stuff (I don’t know what it is actually, but it was good).

Joe being amused by what the sign says.

Fast forward to the wedding day. We were told that it would be held at the community center in my town. Luckily for me, it’s a 5 minute walk. Around noon, all the ALTs headed there to meet with the guests from the actual ceremony (We weren’t invited to the wedding itself, just the reception.). We had to sign the guestbook and give our present to the lady in kimono handling the seating chart.


The present itself was something I had a slight issue with. We were told to cough up 20,000 yen for the wedding (which is about $200). The issue was I really didn’t know the guy and while it was fine inviting us and all, but $200?? I didn’t even give Matt that much on his wedding. Anyways, around 12:45 the wedding party came in and stood by the door to the hall, signaling people to start coming in. We had to bow to the groom’s parents, the groom, the bride, the bride’s parents, and the wedding party. I had back pains just walking into the room.


The table itself was already decorated and food was already out. We sat for another hour waiting for the guests to arrive and find their seats. The wedding started with opening ceremonies (the Japanese really love their need for customs). First it was a talk from the father, which was 30 mins, then the priest who did the ceremony, another 30 mins. Then it was the bride’s father, then some other people I don’t know. Basically it was another hour and a half of watching my food sit there taunting me.

As with all Japanese food, I didn’t know what I was eating. I knew there was a potato dish there, and salmon. I think there was also roast beef as well. However everything else was a mystery. There was some yellow stuff in a bowl, as well as sushi and sashimi. I gave those to Andrea in exchange for the potato stuff. There was also lots of alcohol. Considering it was a Sunday, I didn’t drink very much knowing that I had to come into work on Monday.



The main attraction to having a reception in the community center was the stage. They performed a whole lot of stuff for the wedding. I watched everything from Taiko to some guy hitting a dragon with ferns. There was also a comedy sketch where his friends were talking about his bad habits and casting it away in a box. It was very funny. George also played his guitar, as well as Mayumi (my piano teacher) playing in the background. Our table was the drinker’s table, considering that’s how we all met Taichiro.

The wedding was over by about 5, with most of the party going to the nomikai (2nd party) at George’s House. However, I was already tired, full, and sleepy to be going to another party. I went home and enjoyed the party gifts he gave us.

Sports Day 08

Sports Day 08

I spent this year’s sports day at my north school. It was scheduled to happen Sunday, but due to the weather, it was bumped to Monday. I left my apartment at my usual time to find a lady trying to get into my taxi. After a few awkward minutes standing there, the taxi driver politely told the lady that it was reserved for me.

It takes a good thirty minutes to drive there, and I arrived to a school already bustling with activity. There were students everywhere doing whatever job was assigned to them. I saw a few tending the field, a few tending the tents; others were running back and forth getting various things from inside the school. There were a couple teachers acting as traffic cops directing them to their various locations. The weather was good today, no rain, not hot (yet), and a cool breeze from the ocean.

I entered the busy office with “Good Mornings” from teachers running by to finish up loose ends. For all that planning they were doing before, it seemed like they were rushing to get things done. The whirlwind commotion finally stopped about 8:30 when all the teachers sat down for the morning meeting. It mostly consisted of who was supervising what events for the day. Meanwhile, I was checking my email, Facebook, wiki’ing various topics throughout the entire meeting. At 9am, they finally started the Sports Day.










The event started with the Vice Principal (Kyoto sensei) announcing the opening of the games. He was soon followed by the students marching in and marching a lap around the field. They formed their lines in the center of the field as the team leaders were called to the front. The leaders recited a pledge to try hard, keep fighting, and all that motivational stuff. Shortly after, the Principal (Kocho sensei) made a short speech about the history of the sports day and its importance in the school. The whole opening took about an hour. In that time, it started to get hot and I was standing right in the sun.



The games began with the sprints, and the entire morning was all relays and various distance races.





One of the more interesting events was a game in which a person walked on top of their teammates’ backs. They proceeded for about 20 yards then coming around a cone. It was funny to see the teammates scrambling to get in front of each other so that the person on top could walk. It reminded me of the scene in 300 where Xerxes came to meet Lionides for the first time and having his slaves get down and act like steps.



Another interesting race in the morning was the caterpillar race. The students would gaher in teams of five and tie their ankles together. There were many types of this game throughout the day, but this one involved the most people in a single team.

The final two events of the morning had me playing in them. The first one was rolling a tire frame with a stick 20 yards and back. I have never done anything like this before, so I was the slow one. At one point, someone yelled “Show us your American Power”. At this point, I was thinking “We already showed you that power, atomic power.” I chuckled to myself as I slowly finished the race, which surprisingly wasn’t in last place.

The other game I was involved in was a “catch” game. A student would launch a ball from a distance and me catching it with a basket behind my back. This was a similar game I played last year at Uonome Jr. High school; the only difference was that instead of bouncing it off the ground, it was launched from a student. I managed to catch it on the 2nd try, but our group was the 3rd from the last to finish. After that event we had lunch.

At lunch, all the students ate outside in the tents with their friends and family. The teachers were in the teacher’s office eating ordered bentou from the supermarket. I brought my own lunch because they didn’t inform me on anything concerning lunch (people not telling me stuff, what a surprise). We spent a good hour before starting the afternoon activities.




The afternoon games had fewer races and more games. The first game after lunch was my favorite, the tire wrestle contest. Tires of various sizes were setup in the middle of the field. Two teams would line up on opposite ends facing each other. I could see the students planning which tire to get as they pointed with their grip gloves and whispering on strategy. The gun went off and they all scrambled like jailbreak prisoners to the tire. The chaos of it all was very funny. There were students being dragged by the opposing team while holding on to a tire. There were some tires that had no fewer than 15 children trying to drag it to their side. The most memorable one was a girl being dragged as she called for help around her. Like ants, her teammates came and dragged it across the field back to their side.










After the tire race was the gymnastics exercise. The students would get in various formations, such as pyramids and body displays, such has the human fan. It was very interesting, knowing that they had practiced it for a long time but I’ve never seen them practice.





The cheers came after the gymnastics. The teams did their own cheers to music and choreography. Even the PTA got involved in their own. The PTA had a game in their cheer where some of them would read a clue and then proceed to the crowd for their help. Some things I saw was “Get a pair of glasses”, “Give these flowers to random people” and “Find someone who does this job”. The PTA were also dressed in cosplay stuff. I saw so many men in dresses that I question this island sometimes…


The final event of the day was the Relay Race. This relay race had every student running, and everyone cheering. All the people who were sitting down for most of the day were up on their feet cheering their hearts out. All the kids ran so hard, some falling after passing the baton to their teammate. I guess this is the race that counts.

All in all, it was very fun. I enjoyed being involved with the students again. It was nice to see something that you don’t see in America. I wonder if it’ll be my last sports day.

The Return

Well, I’m back from my vacation to the states. Seems like things are starting to go as usual and routine is starting to kick in. Let me update on what’s been happening since my return.

My first week had me waking up at six am trying to work through jet lag. I have to admit it was pretty nice to get up and take your time getting ready for work. I was able to eat breakfast and think about what to bring for the day. Work is particularly slow because all the students are on vacation and teacher workload is at its lowest. Considering the light workload I had to begin with (at least at my base school), I had absolutely nothing to do. So I spent it planning my seminar that was going to happen that Thursday of that week.

Speaking of which, the seminar itself made me worry my entire time on vacation. The day after I arrived I worked on it. Having little contact with the BOE during the month, I just planned the event based on the initial meeting with them. The day before the seminar, we finally had a meeting on what WILL happen. I met up with Nathaniel at the BOE around 9am. We discussed about the 2 workshops that we’ll do and how we plan to do icebreakers. It wasn’t as bad as I envisioned it to be. After about an hour, Nathaniel and I talked about the seminar, briefly. We ended up talking about what’s wrong with the system, what we plan to do after JET, and random things about our lives up to this point. It was a good talk, considering we don’t talk much these days.

The seminar was the first of its kind on this island. Starting this year, all 5th and 6th graders are required to take English. We were asked to show an example lesson and discuss our point of view on how we think English should be taught. It was interesting because even though we don’t get to do much in school, we do get to interact with the children differently than the teachers. It’s this difference they wanted us to explain. I tried my best to provide my insight on what I’ve been observing this past year, and I’ve learned a few things to make them understand.
I’ve learned about student’s behaviors and how many variables have to be right in order for a class to be productive. I’ve learned about teaching a concept in my many ways so that students can understand. I’ve learned that for them to learn English, they need more exposure, a lot more. These were just some of the ideas I shared with the teachers at the seminar. Most of it was in workshop where I demonstrated many games for them to use that I found successful in my classes. Afterwards, I shared my resources with them and let them go to their respective schools to try them out.

The weekend following the seminar was very relaxing. On Sunday I went to my second high school sports festival. Joe came back from his trip to Australia that weekend, so we ended up going together to watch Andrea and her students run around. It was great seeing all my previous students coming up and saying hi. I saw a bunch of my previous Uonome students, as well as Melissa. I even saw Vicky there. It was also the first time I’ve seen the sun since my return. After watching the relay, Joe and I took off to eat Ramen. There, he talked about his crazy adventure in Australia. We ended up back at Andrea’s place watching the entire season of Twin Peaks…

Which leads me to Monday, the official start of the 2nd semester. We had the opening ceremony which usually is a boring event, but something interesting came up. Towards the awards for summer stuff, one of my 1st years whom I haven’t seen all year, was dragged in by her mom and two teachers. I don’t know what was wrong, but she didn’t want to be there. She was carried in and stood around in the back. She was so great in elementary school, I wonder what happened here that made her act that way. I’ve heard things since April that she doesn’t want to be here or rumors that she has no friends. She went to Tokyo for something, which could’ve been a reason for her not wanting to be here. Sometimes I feel like she does about this place. Only in Japan, right? It’s good to be back.

Summer Starts, starting slow....

July 22, 2008

Today is the start of summer vacation for the kids in Japan. Unfortunately, the teachers still have to come in. If I were a normal teacher, I would be involved in the meetings, planning, and other things regarding the direction of the school. However, I’m not. Instead, I get to spend eight hours every day doing absolutely nothing but sit at my desk reading Google news and Wiki.

I think I’ll use this time to update what’s been happening since the school year started in April. Since the new teachers came in, I work with a new JTE at my Kita – Uonome junior high school. Ever since then, my time there is actually used and valued, unlike my base school where I function like a tape recorder. The new JTE, Iwata-sensei, talked with me about my previous role at the school. After telling him of stories of not being taken to class and missing English class entirely, he was shocked that the school wasted my time. We then discussed how class would run. Initially, I thought that he would just dump all the work on me while I was there, however, this wouldn’t be the case. Since then, my classes have been taught the way I wanted, and the kids responded positively. On some days, they would almost be too positive. Some teachers approach me time and again to tell me: “Your class is very fine, isn’t it.” I’ve lived here long enough to get the Japanese way of handling complaints, so I took that as a “Your class is too loud”.

I work so well with Mr. Iwata that all the kids look forward to English class. I’m happy that they like class, but it also has its downsides. The kids have days where they can choose which class they want to take, which nowadays happens to be English. So some days I have a 6 period schedule (out of 6 periods), teaching the same grade more than once a day. The principal notices this, and now participates with my first year class learning English.

About a month into the new school year, they decided to give me a class, the 1^st years. I am now a homeroom teacher as well as the English teacher. On days I’m not there, the student teacher and a random are assigned. Although I have to attend PTA meetings, proctor national tests, and conduct cleaning time of the classroom, I enjoy the freedom of handling a class. It’s like having slaves of my own.

Around the first week of July, the town of Kita Uonome had a spring cleaning day. When I mean the town cleaning, I mean everyone is out doing yard work. I remember the day I came in a taxi and saw old people working everywhere. When I got to the school, all the students, their parents, and local residents gathered to clean the school grounds. Everything requires a ceremony, so we all stood around in the 100+ degree heat talking about how cleaning day is important and how it builds character, and blah blah blah. Meanwhile, I was standing there thinking how to avoid heat stroke. After about twenty minutes they all scurried off to their assigned places. All the male teachers had the weed wackers while the female teachers had sickles and worked on the hills. PTA members did various things, like driving trucks to transport the yard waste and administering the water.

They gave me a weed wacker with no real area specified other than “Please use this” and pointed to the field in general. Also, I had about 6-7 kids who were assigned to me. Their job was to rake and bag all the grass I cut. Again, my slaves. So I had fun cutting one section of the grass, then walking to the other end of the field just to watch my slaves follow me around. It was very amusing. One kid asked me why I moved so much to which I replied “We have to help everyone here.” They nodded in agreement as I continued to make them follow me around.

We cleaned all morning until lunch time. I ate with the second years. The PTA brought curry and rice. I never ate so much of it in my life; I think I had 2 or 3 full plate servings. I talked with the kids and asked them what they were doing for the summer or how their club activities were. Most of them were just talking about practicing for the Ekiden and perron race coming up in August. Some were talking about practicing club all summer. When they asked me, I told them that maybe I’ll go to Fukuoka to check out Space World. I got the attention of several kids from the other table as they all started talking about which rides to go on first and what food is good there. After an hour of good eating, we played kickball. I was part of the teacher/PTA team and we crushed those 12-15 year olds. It was a little too hot that day. I found myself going to the water faucets and dunking my head under them. I went home exhausted, passing out on the bed in my air conditioned room.

That’s all for now, I’m busy reading Google news and Wiki.

Spring Cleaning

April 2, 2008

Spring Cleaning

The last four months have been interesting. There have been many things happening since the New Year, so I will try to break them down to what I remember for each month.

January:

My Christmas and New Year’s were very different from what I’ve been accustomed to. The other ALTs went their own ways, while I decided to stay on the island. I didn’t get off work until a week before New Years. I think I was even in the office Christmas Eve. They were gracious enough to let me go 2 hours early that last day (Wow, Merry Christmas indeed).

During the season, I spent my dinners with the Filipinos on the island (all 5-6 of them). On New Year’s Eve, we had a large dinner at Yolanda’s house. We continued the party by going to a karaoke bar. It was a great time and I got to know more about these ladies other than that they go to volleyball once a week.

The following morning, I decided to go to the town’s shrine to see hundreds of people in lines leading to it. I saw the women in kimonos and men in suits (well, some of them). They were all lining up to get their chance to pray for a good New Year. They would go up to a large bell suspended about 10 ft in the air with a thick rope dangling from it. From my observation, there was a certain procedure in ringing the bell. First, they would ring the bell twice and pray for a couple seconds. Second, they would grab some incense and wave it above their head. Finally, they would place the incense back and ring the bell again, followed by a bow.

It was truly an interesting experience.

February:

This month had the Tsuwazaki School Festival. The festival was fairly large for only ten students. In fact, there were more performances than there were students. This was the festival that asked me to perform my Taekwondo. It took me only a week to get my forms back into presentation form, which surprised me to no end. I guess I did it so much back then that it just took a little dusting to get it back to shape.

There was one act that did catch my attention. There was a man that cross-dressed and sang some Japanese Enka. He wasn’t even very good and I thought at first it was a comedy routine. When he was finished (which he didn’t’ make clear), he just walked off the stage. Everyone just sat there as the curtains closed and the announcer announced the next act. Confused, I walked over to one of my teachers to ask who that was. They told me that he’s the crazy guy. I laughed at the notion that this town is so small that they have a village idiot.

My desk on a normal day

I spend most of my days going thought my routine of waking up, working, going home, and sleep. My free time is spent rushing to get my Japanese homework done.

March:

March was extremely busy because it was graduation season. The schools had another sports day to celebrate the last time the 3^rd years would have with everyone. Each school had their own version. Kita-chu had a multi-game event.

The school was divided into 8 or 9 teams, with teachers leading each team. I was leader of the team 3 red. The first game was one that I dread, using chopsticks to pick up smooth red beans. I have to admit that I’m not as good as the Japanese in using them, so I was nervous! However, I have been practicing at home for a month. Some of my free time was spent picking up beans from one place to another. To make things worse, I was the anchor, so I had to be the fastest. When the contest started, all the girls would gather around their respected partner team and cheer them on. For some reason when it was my turn, a large gathering came running to see if the foreigner could do it. So now I was in the position of dreading the chopsticks, having to be the fastest, and now in front of the entire school…no pressure. The month of practice paid off even though I had trouble with the last 3 of the 10. My team was 3^rd place

The next game was finding kanji in a newspaper. Luckily for me it was just identifying, because I have no idea how to read them. A teacher would show us the kanji and we’d have 5 minutes to find as many of that kanji as we could. My team finished 2^nd.

The final game was something I could do, basketball. They only had 2 courts so we had to rotate. During one of the rotations when I was sitting out, I heard one of the funniest things from my students. My Jte at that school was wearing red sportswear. His team had green jerseys. One of my second years commented “Look, it’s the Mario Brothers”. He said it in such a funny way that I just started laughing, hard. He just looked at me and asked me if I understood, and I said “Of course I did” as I pointed to my JTE. The other students around me saw and started laughing as well. The games lasted all morning.

After lunch, they just practiced their graduation ceremony. Unfortunately, I had to sit through that even though I had to attend my base school’s graduation.

My base school, Uo-chu, also had a sports day for their 3^rd years. It wasn’t as complex as the one in Kita-chu. They played soft volleyball all morning. Again, the teachers lead a team and I was leading teaming F. For some reason, these kids were lazy and didn’t feel like playing. The game picked up after a few points were scored and winning was in sight. After playing, they practiced their graduation as well.

Last lunch with my 3rd years at Kita chu

After 6-7 months of being here, I think my Kita-chu school has a better quality of education, morale, location, and staff. Uo-chu is fun as well, but the Kita-chu students are more…….involved.

As March came to a close and graduations went on their way, the teachers too got involved in the annual teacher change game. Coming into work the morning of Judgment Day was like a calm circus. It seemed like any normal day, but I could tell the teachers were anxious/excited about what will happen. When the four teachers were called in to get their new placements, the remaining teachers had a somewhat disappointed look on their faces. I asked the science teacher why people looked so disappointed. She told me that most of the staff wants to move off the island. My Jte at my base school looked real disappointed because I think he wanted to be lead teacher. The four teachers that were leaving:

Ookubo sensei: The school nurse. She always gave me rides to school when I was waiting at the bus stop. Sometimes she would give me a ride home if she went early. Of all the teachers at my base school, she was my favorite and I can’t imagine all the times she’s helped me out. She’s moving to Wakamatsu Elementary school. It’s still on the island, but 30 minutes south. It’s a good placement because it’s about 10 minutes from her house.

Ishida sensei: The school office worker. He gave me a ride home my first day of school. We both cleaned the first floor of the school, sweeping the corners and making sure the kids were mopping properly. He’s a quiet guy who liked to smoke. He’s moving to Nagasaki North high school. I think he’s from Nagasaki so it’s a good placement as well.

Noguchi sensei: The social studies teacher. I never really talked to this guy, but was very friendly when I did. He’s moving somewhere in southern Nagasaki. His house is from there, so another good placement.

Kyoto sensei: Spoke no English, but was more than willing to help me out when I asked. He took me places like the boat race festival and when the boys went to spend a day at the fire department. His daughter goes to one of my elementary schools. He’ll be moving to Kita-chu as the new principal (Kocho sensei).

From my other junior high school:

Fukada sensei: He was a nice guy, although he never took me to class. I always spent time at that school marking homework and assigning writing activities. He was the volleyball coach. He had a very strict way of teaching English, much like one of those B-rated kung fu film masters. I liked his laid back attitude in the office, but strict rules in the classroom. I think I could’ve been utilized more in the class, but hey, whatever works.

Kocho sensei: From what I’ve heard, he’s moving to one of Joe’s schools. All I know that my Kyoto sensei from my base school is taking over the Kocho sensei position at this school.

Takao sensei: Was the social studies teacher, moved to my base school as the new Kyoto sensei.

I haven’t heard much from my elementary schools, so I guess it’ll be a surprise.

The end of March is spring vacation. I spent it sitting in office doing nothing but study Japanese and goofing off on the internet. Since teachers were moving around, they use spring vacation to help them. They assigned clubs to certain teachers to help them with any moving needs.

We all went to the port to see the teachers who were leaving for the mainland. The busiest day was last week Friday. Everyone was there at the Arikawa port to see their teachers off. They would tie streamers from the boat and held on to them until the streamer roll ran out. There were bands, students in club uniform, crying peers, etc. It was very interesting to see this.

April:

During the past 2 days or so, the new teachers came in. All of them came from elementary school and never taught at a junior high level. So these past few days were spent getting them up to speed, showing them were stuff is, etc, etc. Class assignments were also passed out, and I’m now part of the first year group. It’s good for me because the kids actually know me from my visits to elementary school.

So now I sit here in the middle of a meeting about more teacher assignments for the new year.