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.