A pretty good day

So, I have to work tomorrow (Saturday) because my 1st years are on a ski trip and they return Saturday night. Since the Ski trip is considered a school activity, they are entitled to a full weekend, so they will get Sunday and Monday.

Since it would be strange to have just the 1st years having Monday off, the whole mess of us gets a day off on Monday...

But that means we work on Saturday...

Of course, the irony behind this is that Saturday will be a Monday schedule.

And all of my classes on Mondays are 1st years...

Which are all on a ski trip.

So I get to go in and sit at my desk all day.

SOOOOoooooo

In light of this, I will tell you about my Thursday, because it is infinitely better than dwelling further on tomorrow.

Thursday started out with my special class of 3rd years. Like Mouse-Chan and Direct-Kun, these are kids who have issues with learning. The thing is that I teach this class with Mr. Second Year.

A while back I introduced a game using a styrofoam die I purchased at the 100Yen store (Like the Dollar stores back home, except the 100Yen has really good stuff). We toss the dice around and when one of the kids (or us) catches it, we have to read the number, the color (All 6 sides are a different color), or say the order (First, second, third, etc). This game is interestingly difficult for Mouse Chan and Direct Kun, but for my Third years, only the order part is difficult. But it's still practice, and it's good practice.

3-5 had 4 kids in it; two boys and two girls. One of the boys, however, has a history of being abused by his father and just recently he lost his ability to talk (Mental, not physical). I'm not sure what action my school is taking, I'll keep you updated. Needless to say, there are now only 3 kids in 3-5 (When that boy stopped talking he was moved to the "isolation ward" of our school where the counsellers work with the children).

So we are left with two girls and a boy. "A", one of the girls, has just recently joined us from another school. She is not the sharpest tack in my 3rd year classes, but she is no slouch either. I am still not sure why she is in the "Remedial" class. I have asked, but the answers are too difficult for my Japanese, and too difficult for their English... I'll learn about it later.

Anyway, A-chan is a tough case; apparently her mother was in an insane asylum and was raped, got pregnant, and had A-chan. Because her mother was insane, they took A-chan away from her and put her in a foster home.

This Thursday starts out with A-chan looking like this (Or some similar seriously dark issue) is weighing heavily on her. One of the things that I like about A-chan, though, is she is subdued, not sulky, not pissy, just subdued. It's like someone dimmed her personality a little.

We start to play the dice game, and Mr. Second Year and I, being mindful of A-chan's mood, sorta steer clear of her and really start picking on R-chan (The other girl) and H-kun (the boy). H-kun has been part of our general picking on because he is good natured and takes it well (R-chan does too, but H-kun is entertaining about it). In the past we moved from just tossing the dice to one another to playing fake-out games with them (Looking at A-chan and then throwing it to H-kun, Pumping the dice as if it were going to R-chan and throwing it to H-kun, etc). Today I really was making H-kun's life difficult. I asked him what was on the board and when he looked... well... anyway.

This had an unexpected side effect: A-chan smiled.... then I used A-chan as a launching point (By tossing the die to her and having her throw it back to me a couple of times, while faking throwing it to someone else), to get H-kun...

...and she downright laughed.

Score one more for our team.

My Thursdays are pretty packed, I have a pretty heavy classload, and they are all 3rd years and 2nd years (My Fridays are worse, but only because I also have a 1st year class, which just makes things hectic). So I stay with Mr. Second Year through most of the morning.

Then lunch comes around and I am supposed to have lunch with 2-2. As usual, I am forgotten. So Mr. 1st year Japanese Teacher calls up to the classroom.

Mr. Second Year is substitute watching the class. He'd forgotten me.

That's okay, we have never had lunch together in a classroom this year and this turns out to be for the worse for the kids.

Understand that Mr. Second Year and I are pretty close in humor and attitude, and we have gotten to know each other pretty well over the year, so I sit down and he starts out right away:

"Guy-sensei, I-chan here (Pointing to the girl across from me) is absolutely fluent in English."
He then translates that to her, she blanches.
"Really?" I say in English, "That's incredible!"
She starts waving me away in that panicked "No! Please no!" gesture.
"S-Kun there is also flawless... you should hear him, go on, S-kun, tell him!"
S-kun is a member of the Judo club... and he is a big fellow, bigger than me, and he is a genuine teddy bear. Not a mean bone in his body (thankfully). Of course, I'm not sure he has the hang of "Good Morning" and "Good Afternoon" yet... But he blushes mightily, and smiles apologetically, turning away from me.
"You know, Earlier today," Mr. Second Year says, "I-chan got so angry she threw her textbook on the ground and screamed at the teacher."
I-chan is one of my picture-perfect students. She's not very good at English, but she is one of those girls that you know has to go through regression therepy just to find a bad mood. I think she studies polite society on her off time. So, of course, she looks suitably horrified when Mr. Second Year translates that. I, of course, add my own mixture of "Wow I never knew" and "How amazing" in Japanese to her, much to her consternation.
Of course, she knows she's being messed with, you can see it in her eyes.
After lunch, I put my tray away and go over to I-chan, "Thank you for the company, and putting up with being teased."
She smiles a genuine smile and waves at me.
I pat S-Kun on the back, he grins at me.

Yep, score two for the Teachers.

I had some issues with my 3rd years, they are slowly slipping out of control as the year winds to an end... but I think I'll save that for one long, unhappy post in the future. For now, I'm content with the smiles.

--Me.

Tears

My Third years are embroiled with testing. You see (And I think I've mentioned this before), High School isn't a given to students here... Rather, a good high school isn't a given. So every year at about this time, all the Junior High School 3rd years begin the rituals of testing for getting into the good High Schools.

Not all of them make it, of course. And a few of them fail so badly they can't even make it to the lowest ranking High Schools. There are a handfull (Not many) who will go through life here with a 9th grade education.

So Wednesday started with me confronting 3-3 on the first day since many of them have tested for High School.

I notice one of the girls who participated in the Interactive Forum back in May, she is a loveley young woman (Seeing as how she is 15), with a pretty smile and a great, lovely manner about her (I believe I talked about her before, the one with the long hair...).

She cut her hair. And she looks very down.

"You cut your hair." I say as I look at this rather boyish cut (She really cut it short, it's not a buzz cut by any stretch, but her long, black hair is gone). I give her a look to either side "Not bad!" I say with a smile (I'm not going to tell her that I'm horrified she'd do that to herself, she's a teenager...).

So I ask her what has her down.

"I think I failed my High School entrance exam." She says with a very apologetic sad smile.

Now because this girl is a star pupil, you must understand that this means she might be stuck in a state-school instead of a elite private school. She's not in danger of being a 9th-grade-only kid...

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"I know I made some stupid mistakes in English." She replies.

Later I ask Mrs. 3rd Year about her.

"No, I think she's being too harsh on herself, I think she did just fine."

"Did she cut her hair because of that?"

There's a pause.

"I don't think so." She replies.

It's a long standing tradition in Japan for a woman who has failed at something (in the old days it was for widows who had lost their husbands) to cut their hair as a sign of mourning and dispair. More recently it has come to mean failure too... Though in this day and age it's a little more out moded (This happened more commonly during the WWII era) I have a strong feeling, though, that this girl is just smart enough to know and do just that...

Sometimes Japanese shed tears without shedding tears.

Later, we have our normal Advanced Class with my second years. I have pulled out my Sherlock Homes game again. For those of you whom didn't read about it before, the game consists of a series of clues (in English) which lead to where the culprit is. This time I'm concentrating on directions, so this one is particularly hard "I followed the Blue car west three blocks to the third stop light where he turned left and went to the fourth stoplight"...

It's the unit we are on, and it is misery...

So, as before I let the kids clump up in as many groups as they want and work on the project.

I wander around the room translating words for them.

Then I notice one of my girls is sitting on the outer edge of another group of girls...

And her face is red, with that "I'm not crying! Really I'm not" look to it.

I come up to her.

She looks at me, and two tears escape her eyes.

I look at the other girls, they have obviously excluded her, probably with some evil words (Which is odd, this particular girl seems to be rather popular).

I nod in understanding, grab a copy of the map and the clues, and pull up a chair.

One of my other girls (Another one from the Interactive forum), sees me sitting down, and leaves the group and sits with us too.

The first girl asks for the second girl's handkerchief, and she wipes the tears from her eyes.

We work on the project for the remainder of the class.

The chime rings and I stand up, "Are you okay now?" I ask.

She smiles at me and nods, "Thank you Guy-Sensei."

I tell you, those moments make up for so many of my daily stupid mistakes.

---Me.

Back I go...

So it's back to the Teachers' room for me!

I have enjoyed my Winter Break, I didn't do a whole lot (Though I did do some cool things, which I'll blog about as soon as I figure out why pictures aren't working here).

What amazes me is that I'm only 3 months from graduation... In fact, tomorrow marks my 9 month anniversary here. It seems so surreal.

My language studies have been lacking seriously, and I'm feeling like my Japanese is slipping, so I'm going to have to hit the books again. I feel like I should be understanding people more, but I'm not, really... So much of what they say is completely lost on me.

It's frustrating.

One thing I have learned, though, my child will definitely be bilingual... it's really hard to pick up a second language, even if you've been studying it off and on for a decade, when you are not a kid...

Anyway, Back I go!

---Me.

Yoi Otoshi Wo!

This is (Obviously) my first New Year here in Japan. It is also Maia's first New Year in Japan as well (All previous years she had gone back to the States to see her family during this time, but at $1300 a ticket, it's simply too expensive for us teachers to get back home).

So, Maia and I decide we really want to go and join in on the festivities.

First, it should be noted that New Years in Japan and China is a very different experience than in Western cultures. New Years is a very important holiday, one where a number of traditions are carried out (Like, for instance, cleaning the house... but I digress).

New Years is very much a sacred and revered holiday. They don't count down the last seconds of 2006, they don't drink Champaign and kiss each other while blowing through those wierd kazoo things. It's very religious.

So, Maia finds out from one of her students' mothers, that Kashiwa city (In the next prefecture over), has the best New Years celebration, and they have a bell (Which will toll in the New Year). So, at about 8 we head out (We want to stop by and check on the cat at Maia's apartment first)... We had heard the parking lot at the temple had only 40 spaces, so we wanted to get there a little early so we could find a parking space... if we couldn't, well... it could be ugly (They are really strict about parking here... you are at a major disadvantage if you have a car... most people ride the trains... which we would have done except the last train was at midnight... )

We finally get to Kashiwa (We get lost first and end up on a quaint one-MyCar-wide road which, luckily, was very deserted... because there was no passing room and I'd have to back out to let another car go), and we finally find the Temple.

It's open, but there is no one there. There are 3 cars in the parking lot...

Okay, so it's 10:30, maybe people will be coming later.

We wait for a while, then go to the temple and look around... it's a lovely temple, and they look as if they are setting up for evening activities, so it's the right place... but it's almost 11... where is everyone?

We go back to the car and wait. at 11:20, everyone and their uncle starts showing up. The parking lot begins to fill, and there are people walking and riding their bikes to the temple.

Maia and I go on in.

We look about and notice that the bell tower is lit up, and people are standing in line already (Not many people, but a few). We go and stand in line.

We chat with a grandpa and his grandson (Probably 5 years old) who are standing in line behind us, and Grandpa explains what will happen to the kid. Everyone will go up and get to strike the bell once, he explains, and it will go "GOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGG". The boy repeats this: "GOOONNNNNGGGGG!" With a big grin. This goes on for a while, Maia and I talk to each other in Japanese about how cute the kid is. And we wait in the cold Kashiwa night.

About 10 till midnight, two Buddhist priests walk up to the tower, they say a prayer, and then the main priest strikes the bell four times. The bell is loud and wonderful sounding, a pure tone, deep and resonating. It hums after being struck in a pulsating vibration which goes on for a long time (In fact, they time the strikes of the bell so that it never stops humming). The priest then allows the acolyte to strike the bell once. The priest then turns to the first person in line, and motions him to come up to the bell.

He strikes it once, and then bows and the next person is up.

Maia and I are only about 10 people back, so in no time we are up.

The bell only tolls 108 times (That's a mystical number, very lucky), so I let Maia ring the bell (Rather than both of us taking up 2 rings of the bell).

She rings the bell as well…

“GGGGOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!! MMMMmmmmMMMMmmmmmMMMMMmmmmMMMMMmmmm”

What an impressive sound.

Then she steps down and up comes grandpa and the kid go up there…

“GGGGOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!! MMMMmmmmMMMMmmmmmMMMMMmmmmMMMMMmmmm”

Then he steps down as well.

All the way down he is “Gooonnnnnggggg”ing with every step. It’s hideously adorable.

Then Maia and I go back to the bon-fire and join all the folks there. Next to us are a batch of high school boys who are trying to find a way to put 5yen into the coin-thing (It’s a place where you put donations). Traditionally, you put either a 5 yen or a 50 yen piece into the bin because they are the two Japanese coins that have a hole in them (Thus they are circular, a “Maru” which is very lucky in Japanese mythology). The boys manage to find 5 one yen pieces and they are about to go put them in and I hand them a 5 yen piece (I brought a lot of spares, I planned ahead), and I said to them: “Circles, they have to be circles”. The kid smiles and thanks me and then he goes and puts the 5 yen piece in.

Then we returned home, a long drive in the middle of the night, but it was all so worth it.

----GGGGOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!