It's graduation time which means no class for me because all the kids are too busy practicing various things for the graduation. All the non-graduating kiddos work on songs to sing and gifts to present to the leaving 6th graders and the 6th graders have to practice for the ceremony over and over and over again. And not just the ceremony either. They also practice bowing, how to properly receive the diploma, various songs, and various speeches too. I got to sit in on the 'final' practice while at Yamanashi-sho, my Monday/Friday school and took a few pictures. The giant sakura tree is an art project that all the students worked on together and one of the many graduation activities that classes were canceled for. However, it is a very nice sakura tree.






The actual day of graduation I spent at Kanoiwa, my base school. The day before graduation was spent prepping the gym for the big event. That means cleaning the gym floor, setting up the massive flower displays, putting up the big red and white stripped curtains along all the walls, setting up the memory music boxes that all the 6th graders made, getting the stage ready, and putting out all the chairs. This massive setup is done by teachers and students alike and is crazy. There are kids and teachers running around everywhere. Seems to take way to long given the number of helpers, but the kids lose focus rather quickly.







The day of graduation is pretty straight forward. There is music and walking and sitting down and bowing and singing and more bowing and getting the diploma, and more singing, and then more bowing, and maybe some more singing after that. Then there are speeches from about 10 or so community members who are deemed important enough to give speeches, and because they are such important people and all, spend about 30 min a piece saying the same thing as the person before them in really formal Japanese that I can't understand and that have the teachers later confessed that they didn't understand either. I was not the only one who almost fell asleep!

After that comes the fun(er) part. Pictures! First each 6th grade takes a picture with their homeroom teacher and parents. One of the graduation 6th grade boys is a special ed student and he kept making the infamous japan 'bunny ears' and they had to keep retaking the picture. It was pretty funny. After than, the kids willing have their parents take pictures of them with their friends and teachers, including me! I really wish I could get my hands on some of those pictures. One of the was me with about, oh, 25 or so of my boys. Most were too shy to ask me for a picture, so they made one boy come up and ask and we all took several pictures together. Normally these things are a sad occasion and you'll get a bunch of people crying. Teachers and students alike. For me however, it wasn't really all that sad as I knew I would be teaching at the junior high school where all the 6th graders would be attending.


After the photo taking and goodbyes, it was time for the final goodbye. All the teachers get in two lines and form a sort of tunnel. The 6th graders, along with their parents, walked down the tunnel while the teachers wish them well and say goodbye. All of the teachers also have potted plants and pass them out to the students as they walk by. One potted plant per kid.



After the tunnel, the kids head home with their parents. If I was in the US I would add 'never to return again' to the end of that sentence, but the old 6th graders will probably be making return visits to the elementary school within a week. That is, if they are anything like the last group of graduation 6th graders. The teachers then head to the office for some well earned dessert and to finish up any work they have to do. I just ate my cake, finished cleaning out my desk, and went home. Looking forward to my Spring Break in Kobe/Hong Kong and to working at junior high school once school starts up in April. Yay!

Labels: school, students, work

We recently held a new teachers enkai. This is basically the welcome party for all the new teachers who started working at the beginning of the semester. While other enkai's have had games and what not, this one was pure business. The principal welcomed all the teachers and gave a speech, then all the new teachers gave a speech, then we ate. This enkai was also held in Isawa, like most all the other ones, but one significant difference was the food.

The food at this enkai was the best yet! All the other ones were set menus that were pretty much all traditional Japanese food. This one still had your sushi and soba, but everything was serve your self rather than a course meal. So I got to pick and choose what I ate. There were also several non-Japanese plates to choose from like a chicken and potato wedge dish. Overall, this was definitely the best, at least food wise, enkai yet.

Labels: enkai, food, party, work

My poor littler scooter was in the shop for a few days. It's apparently a 2 cycle engine which means it mixes the oil and gas. It also means that I should have been refilling my oil, but wasn't, which is why it ended up in the shop. The mechanic actually helped two other ALTs in my town, one with buying a bike, and another with buying a new scooter, and came highly recommended. Janet came with me when I first dropped off my scooter to help me communicates with him and during our conversations, we discovered that I taught his grandson. Said grandson ended up coming back home from his soccer practice while I was still there and looked a bit freaked out that his English teacher was standing there having a chat with his family member. Anyway, my scooter is already back home, and it even cost less that what I was expecting to fix!

Labels: scooter, work

Every now and then I would see the 6th graders at my Friday school putting together these strange looking wooden contraptions. And on 1/6 I finally got to find out why. Apparently, about 100 years ago, the Fuefuki river flooded and a bunch of people got together to build these strange contraptions to help change the direction and flow of the flood waters. A bunch of people died trying to do it and now the 6th graders basically do a demonstration of how to put the wood contraptions together in remembrance. It was actually pretty interesting to watch. And a bunch of firefighters and parents also came to the demonstration as well. It even got a mention on the city web page!

Labels: school, students, work

This month I will be helping to host a Winter Party that the city hall is putting on for elementary school students in Yamanashishi. We'll basically be playing games with the kids, watching a storybookesque video about Hansel and Gretel and then making gingerbread houses together. Below are some pictures I took of our gingerbread house making test run with the women from city hall in charge of the party. Should be interesting to say the least. I do worry a bit though as, at last count, there were only 4 families attending the event. I hope more people sign up soon!

Labels: party, work

Just like at all my previous jobs, I'm required to keep track of when I work. When I worked at Wal-mart, that meant swiping my badge to clock in and out, at the spa it meant making note of when I came in and when I left on the computer, and at the law firm, doing time entry to keep track of every hour of my day. Here in Japan, they take attendance using hanko. A hanko is basically a stamp. Everyone in Japan has a special stamp of their name that acts as a signature would in the States. Instead of signing things, you hanko things. So, basically, one day a month, I sit down and find my page in this big book at my base school, and hanko everyday that I came to work. If I didn't work, I have a special sheet to hanko if I took special leave, and another special sheet to hanko if I took vacation. My hanko is my name written out in katakana characters, which is the writing system used for spelling foreign words. You read it from top to bottom. In the pictures below, you can also view my horrible attempts at writing the kanji for Saturday, Sunday, and special leave.

Labels: work

I was invited to another enkai by my base school. This time is was the end of the semester, start of winter break enkai otherwise known as the bonenkai. Pretty much the same deal as the first enkai. It was even held at an an onsen in Isawa just like last time. This time I skipped the onsen bit though and just went for the food and drink. Once again, I partook in my fair share of sake and ate what seemed to be a never ending array of various traditional Japanese dishes. Also, as it was so near Christmas, we did a secret Santa exchange. I brought a blue plaid patterned scarf as my gift and received a bottle of wine.
















One special note about this enkai. Somehow, I ended up sitting next to my principle! Plus, Ryoko, my JTE, was on the opposite side of the room. Thus, I had quite an interesting evening of gesturing and trying to keep the principle's beer glass full. Also, this time, rather than sports festival games, we did a few eating based games and some, 'guess who' types games based off of personality profiles we filled out prior to attending. I was no good at the guess who games as all the hints were in Japanese, but the food games were pretty fun. The first was one where everyone on a team had to eat a piece of sushi. The catch was that one of them was loaded up with wasabi. The game was for the rest of the group to figure out who had the one with the wasabi. I had a normal piece, thank goodness, as I rather dislike wasabi. The next game though was with tomato sauce and hot sauce. And guess who ended up with the hot sauce? Funny thing was that I almost didn't realize it was even hot sauce. At first I thought it might have just been funny tasting tomato sauce or some crazy Japanese version of tomato sauce. But, nope, it was the hot sauce. No one ended up guessing that I was the one who drank the hot sauce so I got an extra prize! And, in all truth and honesty, the hot sauce didn't taste all that bad. I told everyone this and, after they tried a bit themselves, decided I was crazy for liking it!

Labels: enkai, party, work

All through December my 1st-5th graders got to have Christmas lessons. Yeah, only 1st-5th. 6th grade doesn't get any holiday lessons per my lesson plan guide book. But, they did get to make hot dogs, so, hopefully they'll get over it. Anyway, my 2nd graders made Christmas ornaments and then decorated the paper trees that I made for them. Here are some pics of their trees!






Some of the kids got pretty creative with their ornament making. There is a penguin, snow mittens, some 3-D presents, and even 2 of me! Resemblance is uncanny isn't it?

Labels: Christmas, students, work