Todays Surprise is...

Brought to you by MySchool.

All I have to say is: I am so glad I trained under Troy for Improv... And when I return I hope he is interested in doing again, because I am SO much better at it now...

Tuesday we had a most unique thing (Well, unique to me, not so much in Japanese Schools). We had our Annual Chorus Contest. My kids have been practicing since we returned from Summer break for this, and they were quite amazingly prepared.

Every school in Japan does this; all the kids in each class choose a song to sing, then the entire grade chooses a song which all of them sing. They get up on stage (Yes, every single one of them), and they sing the "Grade Song" followed by the "Class Song". There were some very interesting songs this year, I only recognized first year, 4th class's rendition of "Carrying You" from Castle in the Sky: Laputa, but they all did a very good job. I filmed it with the new camera, and you will likely all be subject to see some of it at some point... Because, of course, everyone hates vacation films... except the person who shot them...

Anyway, lunch time rolls around and I'm in the staff room when Mrs. Sensei (The wife of my Kyudo Sensei) comes up to me and says: "Your singing, right?"

She doesn't speak any English, so I thought "Hey, maybe I misunderstood her..." so I say: "What?"

"The Staff chorus song, you are singing in it, right? I need to fit you for your outfit." Along comes Mrs. Team Teacher, who translates it for me... Nope... I understood her perfectly.

"Sure!" I say, because, hey, I'm game.

She hands me the music... it's in Japanese... this should be fun... then I say: "Could I listen to the song?"

"Why?" Mrs. TeamTeacher asks.

"Because I've never heard it before... and I don't even know what kind of song it is..."

Mrs. Team Teacher stares at me, "Good luck" she says softly with a horrified smile...

So I take the music over to my desk and I write the English Phonetic equivalent over the Japanese (Because I can't read Japanese at normal speed yet, so I wrote the words in Roman letters I.E.: "Shin-Ji-tte yo, an na ta..." etc), because at least I can sight-read those. I listen to the CD twice through, and then I'm on stage (Less than an hour after they brought up this famous proposal...).

That was fun! Actually, Mr. Principal, standing next to me as the curtain is about to rise, says in english as he taps his chest: "Don't Worry. No practice too!" Then he laughs merrily.

I love my Principal.

The curtain goes up... I mouth the words (I wasn't about to risk actually singing, I just wanted to look like I was singing), and halfway though Mr. Principal loses track of his part, and everyone naturally looks at me... but I'm not making a sound! :D

Ah... those are the days that try mens souls.

The song ends and a very amused 3rd year girl who has been playing the piano for our chorus and trying so hard to keep us together, just looks at me and grins... I just shake my head.

Mr Principal immediately admits it was he who went off tempo and Mr. Music Teacher is stunned that I looked like I had been practicing for weeks on this song.

Later, two of my best Third Year Girls walk up to me and say (In Japanese):

"Well, Guy-Sensei... better luck next time with your singing." and then they nod knowingly and walk off.

I just grin at them... because, really, what else can you do?

And that, my friends, is what life is like as a Junior High School teacher here...

Thank you, Troy. Of all the skills I have used here, the ones taught by you are becoming the most valuable...

---Me (Singing).