BIG THING, little thing

July 10, 2007

Okay everyone. I’m gettin’ acrackin’ like the kraken on this one. I know many people want to hear the yakuza story (which now that it’s built up won’t be as awesome), but I must blog about today while it’s fresh in my mind. On a down day, I’ll flashback and recap the club scene later. But today was such a great day, I have to bloggity shnog it right now.

Today was the first day of classes at Kyoei and fun was had, as well as nervousness. I woke up at 6:00am, as the taxi was to arrive at 7:30, and when it comes to getting ready in the morning, I am effectively a girl. However, having nine other people in the house made me get ready quicker than normal. Everyone else got up at staggering increments until all were awake, eating wacky taxes cereal and waiting for transport.

At 7:00am, I went up to the computer lab to check on Jesse and see if he had taken my laundry to the laundromat like he promised. As I opened the door, I saw him asleep on the couch and promptly returned the door to its shut position. I had forgotten that Will, Alex, and Jesse were working on our intro video until 3:00am. Apparently, Jesse had dismissed Alex and Will at 3:00 and stayed up all night to finish it himself.

At 7:20am, Jesse joined us right before the taxis arrived and gave us the intro DVD. He promptly faceplanted in his bed and did not wake up until he so desired. We got in the taxis and headed off to Kyoei Kasukabe.

We arrived around 8:00am and Jamie was there to greet us. She ushered us and our umbrellas toward the school office. As we walked the junior high band, scattered across the parking lot and various balconies, practiced in scales in tones that were actually very haunting and whimsical. We would get a better taste of their musical ability later.

We entered the office where Sakai-Sensei urged us to sit down and gave us instructions for the day, as well as our own personalized boxes and markers. Oh boy! We then were sent upstairs to the room where we were detained during our first visit. Thankfully we were only there an hour, where we made our nametags, which we would use as examples to show the kids when telling them to make their nametags. After that, we were swept up once again to the auditorium for way more than we deserved.

As we entered, we saw the many members of the junior high band we had seen before. Though we had been prepared verbally for their sweetness, I don’t think we ever believed the praise of mouth. I mean, everyone knows that school bands, especially junior high bands, always suck. But these guys were anything but suck. They were totally awesome. I mean, they could really play! They wove us bandy-type medley of “Pink Elephants on Parade,” “Moon River,” “The Pink Panther Theme,” and “The Peter Gunn Theme.” Let me tell you, those kids could rock it out on some clarinets. So web kudos to them. This was followed by a dance choreographed for us by the drill team, and a drum and piano duet by two of the band kids. It was all so much for little old us, and I’m not sure any of were prepared for such a warm welcome. After that, we presented our intro video, which went over pretty well, I think. The kids laughed and that’s a good sign. I’m not sure it’s exactly what Alex wanted, but he, Jesse, and Will still did a dang fine job for having only two days. The kids loved it, so that’s all that mattered.

We then stood in front of everyone and introduced ourselves once again. And once again, my sardonic humor went unappreciated by the Japanese people in the room. Nonetheless, I think the kids got the point and were ready for some fun times.

At the end of the welcome party, we rushed off to our classes. Will and I have the advantage of teaching the same subject, so our kids are combined and we get to teach together. It’s kind of more fun that way, I think. We called roll and began telling the kids to start their nametags. This was met with mixed results. All the kids have had three years of English, but as anyone who has been forced to take three years of a foreign language can tell you, not everyone who takes the class knows how to speak. I mean, I took three years of Spanish and don’t remember a lick of it. These kids have already completed three years of English before they even go into High School, so I’d say they’re doing pretty good.

It was interesting to see how we had to speak to get them to understand what we were saying. They can read and write English fine, but the conversation and listening makes them nervous and there’s a lot of hesitation. So far, it seems like half the boys are into drawing and all the girls are way into it. We actually have a lot more girls than I expected and they’re all really good at drawing and speaking. I was nervous at first because the kids were hesitant, but after getting them started on their projects, Will and I sat down at different tables and began drawing with the kids. As they drew, I would get excited and point and what they drew. “Solid Snake! Metal Gear Solid! Awesome! I like Metal Gear Solid.” Getting excited gets the kids really excited too. I drew a few pictures that made the kids laugh. Will is a much more experienced artist, so his drawings can range from anything to anything. I have a very John K. influenced style, so it was funny to see the kids’ different reactions. They all called Will’s drawings “Kawaii” (cute) and called all my drawings “Kawai” (scary). I found that rather amusing.

At lunch, I ate with some boys who were not very talkative. Most of my jokes don’t work on them because of the language barrier and because the Japanese sense of humor is so strange. So, I found that sticking chopsticks in my mouth like a walrus works pretty well.

After lunch, we all headed downstairs for the kite factory. I had to stand up on the bus which sucked. When I got out of the bus, I saw Neil again. He, Will, and I talked about how the word awesome means different things in America and Britain. Then we headed in.

After this point, I pretty much lost track of my kids. They went all over the kite factory and looked all over the place. It was pretty cool and kind of like a museum. There were a couple of three story kites in the corner that were mighty impressive. Sadly, I was kind of mean to some of my kids by accident. I’m used to being very strict after working at COS, so when some of them ran upstairs I called them back down. As soon as they came down, three other kids ran up past them and I realized they were allowed to run around the museum as much as they wanted. I tried to tell them, “Nevermind” but they obviously didn’t understand that. The conflicting instructions just confused them more. Luckily we were all called into the main kite room to make our kites, so crisis kind of averted.

As I gathered my group, the boys and girls naturally separated into two separate circles. I tried to gather them together, but it didn’t work so I just sat in between the two circles. The boys turned their backs on me, so I turned to the girls group, which was much more accepting. I tried nudging Yusuke, the boy behind me a couple times, but he didn’t answer my questions. Luckily, a very nice girl in my group, Shiho, helped me make my kite and even attempted conversation with me several times. I was very proud of her and her friends for doing such a good job. They’re all really good artists, and I’m excited to see what they do this week.

We rode back and talked with the kids briefly before the end of the day. We told them to bring in their favorite art, drawings, and their English diaries (which they will write to us and we will write back) tomorrow. We had a short meeting with Sakai-Sensei at the end of the day and told here about the time we had. Most of us had a good day. The kids were quiet with all of us and we had some mixed results in getting them to communicate, but overall, I’d say everything went pretty well. My goal for tomorrow is to really get to know all the kids and get them all talking. Tomorrow we have English lessons and drawing, so it should be a fun day.

We got back to the house completely exhausted. I had only five hours of sleep, so I was dead walking. I took a shower (due to the massive amounts of heat in this country), and came out ready to nap. Sadly, Will informed me of a battle of the bands in the college amphitheater. I couldn’t resist.

I went with Will and Jesse to the amphitheater and heard the first band play. They were pretty good. Mike, Julie, and Aaron joined us later, but all of them soon ditched as soon as the quasi-metal band began to play. I was left alone, but I began getting kind of pumped. The band was good, but not that good. They kept playing at a certain level of awesome that was just below the level I needed to go down and mosh. The Japanese guys who must have been friends with people in the band, were kind of semi jumping and waving their hands. I figured if a song good enough to headbang to got played in the set, I would go down. I was on the verge of running down during every song. Finally, a kind of speed metal song was played as their last song. I couldn’t resist. I ran down as fast as I could and began headbanging and moshing with the other Japanese guys. They really got into it, and we kept it going for the whole song. It was near the middle of a vicious headbang/slash rock on hand pump cycle that I realized I was very very tired. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I had to do it for America. The song ended, I high-fived all the moshers and ran back to my seat, pretty much unnoticed. The MC spoke for a while before the next band. He said gaijin (foreigner) in there somewhere and everyone laughed. I can only assume he meant me. Whether he said something good or bad about me, I guess I’ll never know. Halfway through the third band, I left to go eat.

Around 7:00pm, I met Ryan, Sid, Lauren, Julie, Will, Jesse, Aaron, and Mike for noodles at a traditional noodle house called Udon Ichi. The family that owns the restaurant rolled out the red carpet for us once again and gave us the huge table on the floor. We all ate a lot of food, and the hostess of the noodle house even brought out melon slices and tea at the end of meal for no extra charge. You might think she did it for a huge tip, but that’s the amazing part. Tipping is not allowed in Japan. I mean, it’s not against the law, but it just doesn’t happen. If you leave money on the table, the waiter will chase you down and give it back. And if you try and give it in person, they will flat out reject it. And the worst part is, I really wanted to leave a tip. Like a five dollar tip. These people were so hospitable, I wanted to hug them all and buy them each a goat…or something of equal value.

Will and Jesse talk in Gibbity Goobity

Yes, the guy on the right is my boss. When was the last time your boss did this in front of you? That’s right. My boss rules!

After our very fun and wacky time (see above video) at Udon Ichi, we came back to Sprouting House. Will and I lesson planned a bit as my clothes were in the wash. They’re still drying as our dryer suck-suck-sucks. I must be off to bed now. I have my first day of real teaching and not a lot of time to sleep. Goodnight to all and to all a goodnight!