Fit But You Know It

It had rained the night before so when I arrived at about 7:50am the students were already out there soaking up some of the water with sponges. I sort of lingered here and there as I hadn't been given a task and saying good morning to everyone can take a while! After a brief teachers meeting we all headed out and that's when the sports day begins.

In true Japanese fashion the sports day begins with an opening ceremony involving each student in their respective classes walking around the perimeter of the racing track lead by the head student and the student committee. There are speeches that I don't understand by the principle, coordinator and some other important douchebags and the warm up begins. It's short lived and it's hilarious but eventually the students regroup into their perfect lines to run off through the designated field exit area.

The various events throughout the day aren't so much 'athletic' in the traditional sense of the word and instead revolve around the students doing fun or unusual things with only a little bit of a skill involved. I was told as this gives every student a chance at winning and I fully agree with it! It's so much more fun and even complete genetic hiccups can still cross that line first. They often don't ... but they have the chance to!
I'll give an example; the first race involves students putting a baseball bat to their forehead and to the ground and spinning around several times, finding a treat in a big pan of flour by slamming their faces in. After this they dash over very narrow beams; throw a ball into a basket; they must bite off a piece of bread suspended in the air and then finally dash to the end.

You just wouldn't see that in athletics days in Australia! For us it's all sprints, hurdles, high jump, long jump, triple jump and several other events that actually require sporting prowess that I'm afraid to say that I just didn't really have at the time. I will point out though that at our sports days we were at least allowed things like face paint and ridiculous costumes in our house colours. Every student in Japan must wear the same uniform with only a headband / hachimaki to tell what class their in. Class 1 in year 1/2/3 all wore red, all class two's across the year levels wore blue and then there was only one extraneous class (2-3) that had yellow head bands. They didn't win though so forget I mentioned them.




Events during the day ranged from;
various relays;
An event involving one student running on a path made of the backs of the other students in the class (a kid running on the backs looked like an asian version of Tyler Newstead, Jays brother. Isn't that wierd?);
A tug-rope war;
A mock cavalry battle which for some reason required all the boys in the school to remove their shirts?;
A race for girls to run into the centre of the field to grab pipes / wrestle them off other girls and drag them back to their side. The innuendo was not lost on me but unfortunately it was lost to those around me;
One relay with just the third year girls involved a piggy back race, a wheelbarrow race, a double-skipping race, leading-the-blind race and finally a 3-legged race all in one. It was epic.


Sports Fests are held on Saturdays so the families of the students can come and watch which is clever. Some people had started to arrive as early as 8am and everyone didn't settle for just a tarp nosiree! They had the portable tables and chairs and everything which coincided with the presence of food stands selling takoyaki, fried chicken and shaved ice. Highschool students came to visit and it was pretty social thing for the town. Some of the highschoolers talked to me but they weren't very good at English... Although if they were going to school around that area then they wouldn't have scored very high on their entrance exams.

And the music! Oh the music! I would hear snippets from Indiana Jones, Rocky, Star Wars, Tatu (remember them? The psuedo lesbians), other English songs, some Japanese songs, classical music, anime themes and so much more! The commentary was done by the students but it wasn't terribly exciting / I didn't pay much attention. I was having a fantastic time taking photos of the events until my camera battery died after the event involving a football being hit around a witches hat by a baseball bat. Which means I missed out on photos from a lot of other events but that's alright as I have another school in which to take photos of in their sports fest. I might be able to get some off the school later but they're a bit iffy with that sort of thing.

The big competition throughought the day was between 3-1 and 3-2 and it all culminated in the final relay between the two classes. Every student in the classes must participate in this relay (so failure can't be traced back to any one particular person except if they really truly suck ass) and when this race comes along they like to make a parents/teachers team to compete against the students. I offered to run as part of this team as I like running and I was pretty sure I could hold my own against the students. Turns out these kids are FAST! But it also turns out that my competition in the relay were two girls. Yui-san and Ri-san. Yui-san likes to laugh, isn't very sporty nor overly studious but she's fun - Ri-san plays the saxophone, has a cool hairstyle and is shy to the bone so you can imagine how they run. You can imagine it right? Anyway, I got the baton coming last out of the 3 teams and I got us all back to even. I wasn't the fastest runner out there by any means but the students managed to turn 'Nice Fight!' into 'Nice Run!' so I dedicate their English creativity to my skillz.

The final event was the folk dance and it was JUST before this dance that it started to rain pretty heavily. This didn't stop anyone though and the students were forced to dance together in the pouring rain and oh lordy they could not have hated it any more. It was .Hilarious. to watch. I joined in at the end for fun and had a few turns but they eventually stopped and ran under cover. I wish you could have seen their faces, most of the male students wouldn't actually touch the female students on the hands so the teachers made them.

By the end of this you're probably thinking that the teachers are all dicks and the students hate them but it's quit the opposite! The students and the teachers have a great relationship especially in a school as small as this. The staff room is always open and students can come in at any time to talk to teachers and what not so when a teacher *makes* a student do something it's usually with good will.

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In other news I had a house warming party and it went magnificently! Awesome people came and we all had a fantastic time. My house was sufficiently warmed and although we're coming into Summer I don't think it was physically warmed as I don't think it works that way so I should be fine. How is that for an awkward phrase that could be misconstrued as me thinking thats how house warmings work? Some people from Gunma (the next prefecture over) came and bought their N64 and they even bought Smash Bros. with them which some of you may know is a game that I am exceptional at. We made punch, there was a karaoke stint and only two people threw up but not on the floor so I don't care. I probably wouldn't have cared if they did anyway!

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I had dinner with the staff of Bato-jhs and I was given the seat opposite the principle who pretty such he was very happy to have me at the school which is awesome! His English is pretty broken but I can generally piece it together, it's my Japanese that needs some work! I found some textbooks in storage below my apartment so I'm using them.
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|---> To elaborate on that. My apartment is owned by Joytalk (the company I work for) and was originally used for storage for ages so there is a heap of useless shit. In my alone apartment there is a snow board, some guitars and speakers, old records, fans and so much more! UNDERNEATH there are chairs, tables, desks, tarps, books, more tables, a display case, awkward shelving, a PIANO, mattresses, fans, various appliances and so much more. It's a gold mine!

So until next time!

kris.


P.S. Class 3 -1 won in the end which is good as I like that class.

(Here is the link to photos from Sports fest! Anyone can see these; http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=263098&id=680155088&l=b5dc9080b4 )

Days Go By

So I thought for my next blog I will do a 'Day in the life of' and detail what I would do in an average day to give you more of an insight to the goings on in my world. I'll use mostly experiences from my time at Bato JHS but I'll mix in some experiences from Ogawa JHS to make things more interesting. AS IF I NEED HELP RIGHT?!

Morning;
I wake up about 6:30am to an already bright room. It would appear that the paper screen doors really capture that light and do a bang-up job at making sure I'm always tired. The phone that I brought from Australia wakes me up with its irritating alarm and after serving it's only purpose in this country it continues searching for a network that it will never find. I turn on my computer so I have music to listen to in the shower and I have some sort of western style breakfast - I haven't got the hang of making miso soup yet (read: Haven't or don't want to even try). Japanese people believe that breakfast is very important so while they have some hearty, ricey meal, I eat cereal or toast or something like that.
I leave for work at around 7:15am and with the help of my fm transmitter I chuck on my mp3 player and I sing along to various songs depending on my mood. Sometimes I pretend it's karaoke but none of the songs I listen to are ever on the playlist in karaoke so it's more just for fun. It's about a 40 minute journey to Bato (30 minutes for Ogawa) and there is always at least one rice field in sight at all times. At the moment the rice fields are all flooded so they look like miniature lakes with more recently some showing sprouts growing in almost perfect parallel lines. There are giant colourful koi fish flags flowing in the wind and all the children are on their way so it's quite a nice drive!

Beginning of School;
Morning greetings to the staff and Kouchou-sensei (the principle) is a jumble of 'Ohayou Gozaimasu' from me, to me, from me again, to other teachers, from them, from me, and so on. Usually when I arrive at my desk there is some green tea waiting for me so I drink this while I look over my schedule to check out what classes I have today and what I need to prepare for the classes. Generally it's not much so I sit back and relax / be bored until it's time for my lesson.
On average per day I have about 4 lessons (out of a possible 6) and it's generally a mixed bag of the 3 year levels but I am always evenly spread out across all classes during my time at each school. Bato-chu has 350 students and Ogawa-chu has 199 students so I spend more time at Bato than Ogawa but I still see the students at both schools the same amount - if you get what I mean? Most classes have between 27 - 33 students in them and whilst I am trying to remember their names it's difficult for me to learn Japanese names but I'm working on it!

In Class;
Students in Japan don't move around classrooms for each class like we do, instead they have a homeroom where they stay for all of their lessons and it's the teachers that move around the classes. Students and teachers have a 10 minute break between each class so the students normally stuff around while the teachers go sort themselves out and get their things for the next lesson. I have to enter the classroom through the 'teachers entrance' and not the student entrance or else I'm messing with the whole system. I say good morning/good afternoon and ask how the students are etc. Students don't really like English so I try to make it more fun for them but it depends on their mood and the time of day - classes after lunch can sometimes be like pulling teeth.
In class I say everything that needs to be said in English, run activities and generally act as one part of a comedy duo with the Japanese Teacher. Classes are all generally well put together and when the teacher is explaining grammar or something in Japanese I just walk up and down the rows and interact with the students so I have a lot of fun in these classes.
There are 4 periods in the morning and then we have lunch where I am normally assigned a homeroom to eat lunch with the students. No one really talks while eating lunch and there's pop music playing over the p.a system anyway so it's not that awkward. I try to ask their names but I can't get much more out of them than that. At Ogawa-chu lunch is held in a giant hall with allllll of the students and there's more talking in there so its generally a bit more fun. After lunch I retire to the teachers room to hang out and wait for the next class.

After Class;
After Classes are finished it's time for cleaning so I head to the homeroom that I had lunch in that day and help out with cleaning. I move some tables, do some sweeping and sometimes I help with the waxing of the floor. Some students like to test out new English sentences or say some wierd English that they've heard somewhere in a game, or on tv and so on, which I try to encourage as it's my job and everything. After cleaning if I don't have any marking or anything I change into my P.E clothes and head outside to do some running / whatever sport catches my fancy. I can play most of the sports but baseall because I suuuuuck at throwing! Baseball players are the unofficial cool people of the school so it would be best to avoid embarrassment in front of them I think... Maybe one day in the future they'll rope me in but until then I'll stick to runnning.
The reason I run is because I'm working so much that I can't find much time to exercise and it sure beats trying to stay away at my desk for an hour and a half. At 5pm I'm allowed to go home but these days I normally hang around longer until I feel like going home. I think the teachers appreciate that - but the only exception is Fridays where I need to speed home to teach a private class for the company I work for. I only get paid about $20 but all I have to do is teach two kindergarten children (Shun-kun and Koto-chan) who have never been taught English before. Usually it's something like presenting a colour card and have them dash around the room to touch something of that colour and then getting them to yell it out so it's not that difficult.

Home;
Once I'm in my place I decide on what I want for dinner. Depending on how much free time I've had at school I might have my dinner planned down to exact details but if I ever need anything it's a very quick stroll to the nearest super centre. I say super centre because this place is enormous and has so much more than just groceries and while it's all pretty low quality it's SO cheap! I check my emails and then go to sleep around 11pm to wake up early the next day!

So it's not much but it's my life at the moment and I'm really enjoying it!! The students are awesome, the classes are fun and everything in between is enjoyable also. The one big drag is the waiting between classes if I have a period off with nothing to do so that can get very boring but otherwise everything is going very smoothly! I realise this blog has been a little boring and long so I'll make the effort to make the next one easier to read but I know some people weren't really sure what I was doing over here. Now you know!

Too Long

I know, I know. I haven't blogged for ages which is massively my bad as I don't want to turn anyone off visiting here or commenting as I love it so please keep on reading and I'll give you textual lapdance of what conspired during Golden Week.

What is Golden Week you ask? Well for those too lazy to click on the above link it's essentially 3 holidays in a row that give the average Japanese person 5 days off (inc. weekend). Frankly no one REALLY knows what the holidays are except for May 5th which is boys day and that's remembered as it's supposed to celebrate childrens personalities ... personalities that then proceed to be crushed upon entering into anonymity at whatever school they attend. Bleak.

Earlier in April I had been talking to my pal Stephanie about a plan to do something during Golden week as I didn't want to be stuck around Otawara doing nothing with my life. She mentioned this hiking trail in Kiso Valley down near Nagoya/Gifu that she was interested in and I remembered it from my perusals of the lonely planet guide so I was keener than that tangy spread occupying space in my fridge and luckily for me - Steph pretty much planned everything.

We would leave Sunday, catch the regular train to Shinjuku, then catch a bus from Shinjuku/Tokyo to Nagoya, hire a car in Nagoya and then drive to Kiso Valley. It sounds complicated and indeed it is quite, but the reason we did all this is because it was cheeaaap. Sunday morning I had to go visit the family of the girl I hit on her bike with my car as part of tradition and it was all pleasant. I don't remember if I mentioned the fact I was in a car accident? It's all alright, no one was injured as I was going slow and technically I was in the right (she didn't stop at a stop sign) but I wasn't about to mess about with Tradition so we all sat around and I was asked the same questions that I'm normally asked by foreigners.

There was a night spent in Nagoya and picking up the car but I won't bother with those details; onto Kiso! The drive there is about 4 hours so all in all it does take quite a long time to get to Kiso from Tochigi. We arrived in Magome to a herd of people and decided then and there to do the hike from Magome to Tsumago as we might have run out of time otherwise. This hike is recommended in the Lonely Planet guide as being one of the top 20 favourite things to do in Japan and it was a really beautiful and peaceful walk so we weren't disappointed. It was about 8km but living in Upper Beaconsfield where there is perhaps a single area of flat land had perhaps seasoned my legs as it wasn't really too tough.



Upon arriving in Tsumago it was also pretty crowded so we had a bit of a gander and then tried to book our hotel. Long story short, everything was booked out but as I waited outside for Stephanie and the car (she had caught the bus to Magome to pick it up) a man who worked at the post office was about to leave to go home but he called someone and found a place that would take us in that night which was so nice of him! The owners of the place (called 'Suzume') even guided us from a nearby train station as it was a bit tricky to find without help and we were shown to a big building with tatami mats and everything that entails (sliding doors, cold, kneeling and awkward attempts to try and be traditional). Dinner was served at it was all delicious except for this tiny squid things which I have encountered before and that make my stomach turn. Eating raw meat is fine! Everything is generally fine! But chewing into these things and hitting a crunchy point that you know is the eye is just revolting.

Breakfast was a pretty salty affair and I experienced the cold sweat inducing horror that is; eating a fried egg with chopsticks. It wasn't too bad but sometimes I just want a fork to end my problems (in this circumstance to poke my eyeballs out with frustration, haaaa, I'm just joking). We opted to hit up Tsumago in the morning when there wouldn't be so many people and it was really nice! The wisteria that were growing there combined with the smell of burning wood and the street stalls was simply amazing! It's also worth noting that they had chestnut flavoured icecream there - ordinarily I wouldn't care but the Kanji that Japanese Microsoft Word turns my name into by default is kuri - Chestnut, Su - Nest. IIINTERESTINGGGGGG
For those interested there are in fact several kanji to represent someones name and I think half the fun is selecting the one that carries a particular thought representation. Kanji is complicated. Look it up.

A swift drive that was NOT aided by the Japanese navigational equipment lead us to the Torii Pass and we were greeted by rain but we would not be stopped. We walked that pass and it was over before we knew it! The Torii was pretty impressive and it was EXTRA special to know that in comparison to Magome and Tsumago that this place hadn't been visited by as many people. It was a really nice place! After a brief stint of being mislead by our inability to read complicated kanji we got to the car and tried searching in vain for the next place to visit which was a big gorge that is said to have the most amazing water in but we got lost, impatient, irritable and finally bored. Here is when we left to begin our long arduous journey home.

Let's just say it took (honestly, no exaggeration) about 12 hours and just leave it at that yeah?

So that was my golden week! I had a really good time! A big thank you goes out to Steph and it's a shame Hayley couldn't join us due to understimulation from Krudd but I guess our next big holiday are the summer holidays. SALLY! PARENTS! Anyone else?

Back to school tomorrow! Yey!

kris.


(public link to photos; http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=252744&id=680155088&l=270b66c34d )

(also sorry if the photos on here aren't formatted properly! It looks messy but it's all I can be bothered doing).