Live from Japan!

All the schools in Japan have a very interesting phenomenon called Open Class Day (in some schools it is a whole week). Open Class Day happens several times a year in every Japanese school and it is a time when the school doors are open to the public, and the public can come in and go wherever, whenever, they please.

The teachers here are, not surprisingly, a bit nervous about Open Class Day. After all, there are parents, prospective parents, community members, and official board of education staff, roaming the hallways. These visitors walk around, stopping to watch and listen as teachers do their jobs, and the school goes about its normal, daily business.

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Somedays it seems like I have been here FOREVER. Somedays it seems like this adventure has only just begun. On Thursday, the day of my first recontracting interview, I felt as though I had only just gotten here. How on earth could we already be talking about whether or not I wanted to stay another year.

Like most things with JET, the recontracting process starts early. After all, they have many hopeful JETs filling out the applications now, and come spring they will need to know how many positions they have for the newest batch. Not only does it start early, it also appears to be a fairly long process, which is also not surprising.

The recontracting process consists of an evaluation, two interviews, and then a final meeting (in February) to make a final decision. My first recontracting interview was held last week, and it went very well.

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A few weeks ago I received a revised schedule at work. Four days of school during the last two weeks of October were cancelled for students. Even though classes are cancelled for students, teachers still have to show up. Figures!!

The schedule didn’t really, entirely, explain why the classes were cancelled. Except, across the top of the schedule were the four dates along with the words, “Big Noise.”

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The title of today’s post is not just a clever ploy to get your attention. I am sorry to say that it actually happened. I actually dropped my shoe into the toilet at school today. I am sure some of you, like my husband when I told him the story, are wondering what on earth I could have been doing in the bathroom that would result in the shoe going into the toilet. I assure you, the images in your minds eye are a lot more fantastical than the event actually was, but I will explain and let you judge for yourself.

I apologize, in advance, if this post gives a little too much information. I assure you it is necessary for you to understand the full story.

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Last Friday I went with the second year students to Kyoto. There were several things different about this school trip than any other I have been on before.

First, they didn’t call it a trip, they called it an excursion. I spent a lot of time explaining to students and teachers that this was a very fancy word. That it is more natural to call it a trip.

Second, the students and teachers didn’t stay together. Once the bus arrived in Kyoto, the students were all told to be back at 2:00pm. Students and teachers went out on there own to see whatever sights they could in four hours. I spent the four hours walking around with my supervisor and seeing what the Northwest side of Kyoto had to offer.

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I have a lot of fun in the staff room now. More and more people are talking to me and I tend to stay busy for most of the day, sometimes I am doing actual work, other times I read novels, study Japanese, or book vacations (more on this soon).

Usually I can understand what others are trying to say to me, either they speak in English or they speak using very slow, simple Japanese. But sometimes I get caught in a situation where the pronunciation is just a little off and I am at a complete loss. This happened to me a few days ago.

If-you-are-attacked sensei (my clever psuedonym, I decided I shouldn’t be using real names) came up to me and said, “ohayo gozaimasu,” (good morning) and then, in english, she said what sounded like, “you look sick.”

I looked at her, somewhat confused. I mean, I had biked to work, I was a little sweaty, my hair was less than desirable, and my clothes were a little rumpled, but I didn’t think that I looked sick.

She could sense my confusion, and repeated herself, “You look shick.” This time it had a more defined, sh blend sound, but it still definitely sounded like sick.

I felt my forehead, glanced into the mirror, and said, “I don’t feel sick.”

She started laughing, and said, “no not sick, shick.”

I still stared at her, completely lost. So, she pulled out a piece of paper and wrote the word down – chic.

“Ahhhh,” the lightbulb had gone of in my head, “I look chic. Thank you very much.”

“Yes, you look chic. I like your clothes,” she said.

And so, understanding was reached, thankfully. The funny thing about this though is that I get more and more compliments on my clothes here than I ever did at home. I never considered myself to be fashionable at home, I never followed the trends, nor did I buy new things very often. But here, since my clothes are different, they are interesting and, apparently, quite chic.

Everyday I bicycle to work. It takes me between 20 and 30 minutes depending on my speed and the number of stop lights I hit. In this weather, I am a sweaty mess by the time I arrive at Gifukita High School. So, I have been bringing a change of clothes and switching from my sweaty biking clothes into my nice, slightly rumpled, work clothes.

When I arrived, I naturally started changing in the same place that I changed when I biked to work in Chicago, the bathroom. Although, here it is not called a bathroom (that is where the bath is), it is simply the toilet. I have had absolutely no problem with this, it was quite convenient, in fact. The toilet room was right on my way in from the building and to the staff room. In addition to being able to change, I was able to wash my face and try to get my sweat to a reasonable level.

Despite the fact that I was okay with this situation, my co-workers were not.

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On Friday, last week, I finished the last of my self introduction lessons. I made it through all 17 lessons and I am glad to be done, although equally glad to have started interacting with my students.

One part of my lesson involved them writing questions for me. Things that they were still interested in and wanted to know after I had introduced myself. As they worked in partners on this assignment, I was able to walk around the room and talk to the students. I would stop and answer one of the questions that they wrote for me, and take time to ask them a question back.

I am proud to say that in each class period I made the effort to engage each student in a brief conversation with me, at least once. I think this effort has made a huge impact upon the students, as many of them now come up to me and speak to me. I think I was able to make myself seem more approachable.

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Go also known as Igo, weiqi and by a bunch of other names. This game is very big in japan. It is a deceptively simple and at the same time complex game, it is said that it takes minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. I am always a big fan of games and I found it very enjoyable, but also somewhat frustrating.

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So my school had its 2 day Cultural festival last week as well, called Hakubaisai, after the Hakubai or white plum blossom which is the symbol of our school. It was simply amazing. For the entire summer vacation, many students were preparing for the many attractions which would be available. During the week before, in which they had half days of school to prepare. You couldn’t go anywhere in the school without seeing students practicing or preparing.

Every homeroom, and many of the clubs organized an events. Similar to events at Danielle’s schools Cultural festival, there were plays, dance routines, Haunted houses, exhibits, and much much more.

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