2nd Blog of the Year

Well, the papers are officially signed and are going to be faxed tomorrow. I had such a hard time telling my JHS that I was not staying a second year (my principal thought I was breaking contract as he’d not even assumed going home after one year was an option.) In Japan, there is a saying that if you don’t try something for at least three years- you aren’t giving it a chance. Although people are disappointed, and I feel like I am somewhat letting people down, I still think I am making the right decision for me right now (even when accompanied with a huge amount of guilt.). Tomorrow should also be awkward as I have to tell my super genki principal about my decision, and probably surprise a whole other school that my initial contract is only one year and I am not renewing. Oh well, not going to dwell on it too much here.

Holy moly, officially less than six months to go now. Here’s what’s happened since the last update…

Narin, Sandra and I watched an awesome movie called Dare mo shiranai (Nobody Knows). It was a Japanese movie based on a true story about some abandoned children living on their own. It was really sad but I encourage all of you to watch it (with subtitles of course). For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_Knows_%28film%29
This weekend Narin and I also watched Letters to Iwo Jima. It’s so interesting now that I have been living here and understand more of the culture and mindset.

Life at school is pretty much the same. The students are still meticulous (yet only half write any notes in class) and aren’t held accountable (at least to the extent my university education taught me they should be), but they still manage to go from test to test. We’re still in entrance exam season for our grade 9’s applying to highschool’s. Therefore life is busy, but also rewarding. Once the students get accepted into their high school, they go around to each of the teacher’s who helped them and tell them about their success and say thank you. The students are so emotional and sweet. It was especially adorable when the first girl came up to me after class (when I hadn’t yet seen the procedure and thought it was just random and genuine) and recited the thank you. Still, it’s nice to have the student’s come up to you and acknowledge how you have helped them along their journey (especially when they are nervous and sweating and struggling to find the words in English.) Also writing my note to the grade 6 and grade 9 classes for the year book has brought me into a reflective mood about my whole experience with the kids.
Now that the weather is getting a little better, I’m trying to get outside more. Whenever the ground is not wet, I try to get outside and play with the kids at both schools. Sometimes if it’s snowing I’ll go play with the girls on the mats in the gym, and some of them finally taught me the sakura song and another one on the ocarina! Yeshha!
At the Elementary school, I got to watch a grade two math class the other day. It was very interesting because the grade two teacher is someone who the kids are always all over since they just love him to death. It’s quite interesting watching him interact with them. A lot of time’s he reminds me of dad and his kids—or even more what dad would be like without all the legal restrictions and if he were teaching grade one or two. The interesting thing I observed at that class was how much Japanese schools seem to value quality over quantity. Where, for example, in Canada a math class would learn the new procedure and then have multiple examples and trial questions to practice; in Japan, the entire class goes over again and again the same problem and recites it multiple times. They also show their friends how they got the answer and have to explain everything orally multiple times. However, they only did a similar problem with different numbers during the last two minutes of class. It really was insightful for me (reflecting on both systems.)Anyways, for those who aren’t teacher’s, maybe that’s not that interesting, but the next few things may be… so last week was Kyshoku (school lunch) anniversary and appreciation week. Students learned to be thankful to all the people who contribute to their daily meals and also we tried many new types of food—including whale (which I got out of eating if you hadn’t heard.) Since then there have been even more scandals with dolphin and whale meat, including the discovery of extremely high poisoning levels of mercury in dolphin meat. Eeks. Yikes. On a related note, don’t worry, I didn’t eat any of the poisoned Gyoza imported from China—although it was quite the story around here for a while. Hundreds of people are still in hospital throughout Japan.
Now, for what Jordan would deem the most exciting part of today’s blog entry: this week, my favorite little grade one student (who I absolutely adore), front kanchoed me! (for those who don’t know what kancho is- refer to previous blogs or wikipedia it). He thought he was quite clever and had himself a good laugh out of it. I was used to being ‘molested’ by my grade one’s during “head, shoulders, knees and toes” when they decide to try to do the dance with my body instead of theirs… even though they can’t quite reach and end up mangling me in the process…..but kancho intentionally is where I definitely draw the line… eww shudder.
Although it’s starting to warm up a bit, the kairos are still very near and dear to me (shakey heat bag things). A few weeks ago, after our second Jet Midterm conference, I went on a trip to Gero snowboarding with heaps of other Jets. There were 80 of us altogether at the Kashimo lodge for the weekend of onsen and snowboarding. Most were Gifu Jets but some also came from Aichi and there were other Japanese and Brazilian friends of Jets there too. It was such a wonderful time! It was one of my best weekends in Japan (despite or maybe partially because of my ridiculous alcohol consumption—nomihodai can be such a killer). The mountain was fantastic for beginners-very open and not too many people on the hill. The view from the top was likewise quite perfect. I did my best snowboarding ever while I was there and just had a great time! As anyone who has spent a day on the hill would know, the onsen afterwards topped things right off too!
Although the drive back was long for a full car of hungover and tired people, the massage at Aeon once we got to Jess’s place was fantastic!

Other news in life—I can’t believe how fast time is flying. More people than ever are getting engaged (or at least being asked rather), and I’ve been catching up with a few old elementary school friends lately too (oh the wonder we call Facebook!).

My conversation class is still quite an experience, and along with my Japanese lessons and weekend adventures, the week passes quickly. This past weekend I went out for a friend’s birthday dinner at a great Indian restaurant in Ogaki and then the next day went to a Spring Festival outside Ogaki city. One of the men I met at my friend’s birthday was Japanese and he offered to take us to the festival the next day (which was fantastic because I am really getting fed up with Japanese roads (if you can even call them roads!)). Anyways the festival was so unlike anything from home! It was centered around an old monk ritual and Setsuban. Setsuban is the festival throughout Japan on February 3rd (the first day of spring on the Chinese calendar). Roasted soybeans are scattered in and around your house and into crowds at shrines and temples to drive out sickness and misfortune. Represented by a devil mask- bad luck go out, good luck come in! Is the theme of the festival. In the particular one in Ogaki—the traditional monk ritual was performed by almost 40 daring volunteer men (none who were actually monks I might add—and all who were quite drunk!) who stripped completely naked—minus a sumo looking loin cloth and ran around the streets chanting and getting soaked with water. They then went running through the river (oh yah, did I add that it was one of our coldest days in Japan yet (below 0 and super windy) and that they were practically naked for 3 hours!) haha it was quite the sight to see. Ooh and also at the end they hoisted each other up and crowd surf style passed naked people (still throwing water at them) until a man threw a big bale of hay down from a tower—which the men then ripped apart as fast as they could to get the prize inside. Oh and for the best luck, the crowd should try to catch and eat as many roasted beans as they are years old. I don’t know if I quite caught and ate that many, but I had quite a few. Some of the bags of beans even had prize tickets in them too- although I wasn’t one of the lucky ones this year. You’ll have to check out my pictures and videos on Facebook—coming soon!

Random Japanese of the day:
Foot/Leg in Japanese is: ashi
Finger in Japanese is: ubi
Thus, toe in Japanese is: ashi no ubi (or leg/food finger). Sometimes this language just makes sense : ) I wish English was so—for example today trying to teach the students how to answer “Don’t you like mushrooms?” – yes, uhh, no, uh...

Buffet in Japanese translation- Viking Style

Banzai: Literal meaning is “ten thousand years” is the Japanese equivalent to three cheers! It is often yelled (with hands above your head) three times at a high point or end of a celebration. Letters to Iwo Jima got me thinking about this one.

Kashiwade: refers to clapping of hands in worship at a Shinto shrine. It is done in order to attract the gods’ attention and to concentrate one’s own mind.

That’s all for now!
Stay genki! And as Mom always says… Make Wise Choices! : )