First Day Teaching

Oh man, so today was my first day teaching. I don’t really know how to describe it besides just as that. I got to school to have the main English teacher tell me I was doing my self-introduction to the whole school in less than five minutes (actually only about 40 people max), from which I went into teaching my first of three English classes to groups of elementary school students for that day. I basically talked about myself in English, then showed a slideshow I had prepared describing myself and my life, basically, and narrated it. And to everybody who gave me a picture of themselves, and the person who asked me to get one from facebook, thank you!! The pictures of all my friends was really a great part of the lesson. Pretty cool. Pretty chill actually. When it was question time, I was assaulted by unending questions about my favorite color, animal, bird (?!), food, number, sport, subject, etc. Hehe, then I played guitar to Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes and London Bridge is Falling Down as we all sang and they danced around. That was the first and second graders. The fifth and sixth graders might as well have been asleep and the third and fourth graders might as well have been on speed, meth, and then something that makes taking those drugs still seem so playfully innocent and kid-like. They were the post-lunch crowd and pretty intense.

I was really surprised somehow to see how similarly these kids acted to kids I see at the elementary schools in my town. Somehow, when you see a kid stick his arms straight down, stare directly down at a desk, and howl some crazy, nasally drone while he shakes uncontrollably (?), then bend over and reach up to grab his short from under his legs, languages and cultural differences just seem to instantly disappear. It was a good moment; I was laughing ‘til my eyes watered, haha.

I ate lunch with the sixth grade class and one of the teachers, a young guy. It was really cool. From what I can gather, elementary school teachers in Japan eat lunch with their students, usually separated by class. There was also music playing in the classroom throughout lunch which was really nice (I also thought it was interesting that it was mostly western classical). Probably one of the coolest things was that the students rotate duty to go to the kitchen and take meals up to the classrooms. Then, the kids eat their food, clean their own dishes and desks, and the assigned students pack up the empty food containers and take them back down to the kitchen. Basically the food gets delivered in a truck and the students take care of it from there. When I ate at the middle school the other day, it was a similar deal for the teachers. Pretty cool, I think.

In any case, it was sweeeeeet to be eating school lunches again! Yes, milk carton!!

I mailed in my application to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1 today. I figured I might as well go for the highest one since I passed the sample Level 2, but I’m not sure if I’m going to pass. I really just want to study though, so I’ll do my best at that and enjoy it as I go.

In other news, lots of cooking. Everyday. I’ve taken pictures of basically like every meal I’ve eaten since I’ve been here (weird…?), but I can’t figure out how to load them all on my computer without emailing them all individually to myself. So we’ll see about that…

Liking my town more and more. The longer I stay here, the more I think I’m going to end up spending almost all my time here, rather than going out to the cities. There’s a koto class apparently, which is awesome and I definitely want to take. I’m going to take up karate, cuz it’s been way too long since I’ve done any martial arts, and I’d like have a good, consistent workout. That plus the rigorous study schedule I’ve worked out for Japanese…That said, I plan on going to a huge experimental music festival in Osaka this weekend to see some of my favorite bands and newly interested in bands : ). Afrirampo, Oshiripenpenzu, and water fai?? How can I say no? I don't know. I didn't say it, that's for sher. Oh yeah, I had a pretty interesting "growing"/awkward experience at a show a couple of weeks ago, maybe I'll write about that later.

Speaking of music, I’ve been playing a pretty good amount of it and feel like I’m moving into a new direction, or splitting off on a forked path from the style I’ve been working in for the past year or two. It’s really exciting…involves placing a lot of emphasis on every note and their combinations, usually between just one or two notes. Also, I started doing some different finger picking patterns which is really exciting, especially since I feel like I hadn’t strayed from the same ones for a while before.

Well, I have a lot to say, but I’m pretty hungry and haven’t eaten dinner yet. I bought these AWEsome ingredients to make what will hopefully be a delicious udon dinner.

Two NEW kinds of tofu!

Natto with yuzu (lemon-type fruit) ponzu (sauce)! (I think.)

Plus, all these exciting goodies to make tomorrow’s rice all the more delicious.

Oh man, I have a lot to write about that I’m not going to get to today – maybe I’ll get around to it another time. Oh yeah, I just remembered – Yura Yura Teikoku – oh my gosh, new favorite band. I am so glad I went to visit the owner of that alternative manga/comics store in Kichijouji back when we were all in Tokyo. Even though he wasn’t there…I heard a cd of awesome music that was drony and upbeat and original all at the same time…like the best combination ever. They’re always playing good music in that store. I remember hearing Yo La Tengo there before I got really into them, then I later heard Gellers there during my short trip back last summer and that band’s become part of my musical routine for the past year. Oh music. OH YEAH! And check this out! (picture coming as soon as possible)

So I had a period free today and I was staring out a window at the school field when the vice-principal comes up to me, So how about I take you on a short tour of the school? Okay! FIRST STOP: MUSIC ROOM. YES. We walk in and to my right, a xylophone!? What is this? And do my eyes deceive me or…are those…accordions lined up in rows on a shelf! At this point I’m like all “Eh!!”s and “Sugoi”s! Then I see the line of melodicas on the shelf below. The vice-principal starts talking about how they all learn recorders and starts showing me those, too. Then, as we walk to the front of the classroom, I see what looks like desks with keyboards in the front for at least 20 students. I open the cover of one – it’s an electric organ! Every student in the class gets their own electric organ! We walk around to the side where I see rows and rows of marching drums and more accordions, and as we leave I realize that xylophone I had seen when I first entered was a marimba! There were at least three marimbas and xylophones all together! This room…it was amazing. Oh man. I am considering, no – I definitely plan on asking the vice-principal if I can practice accordion in here and then work my way toward asking if I can use the room after hours. I hope there are some music clubs; it would be awesome to play music with the children!

Okay, now it’s probably time for me to go, and nothing else is suddenly popping into my head, so here I gooo!

Here're some more goodies for now:















A bash of vegetables that I received from my supervisor a couple weeks agoaahhheeeggplaaantt.
















Sonic Youth fans? Except it's a department store...-_-?
















Absolutely DELICIOUS saba sashimi (mackeral) that the 7th and 8th grade English teacher prepared and then gave completely to me after I liked them. He says he's going to show me how to make it once he gets timeSCORE! Haha, that reminds me, I gotta tell you all about the teachers at my schools.

















My dinner last night...ooh, picture quality not so great. But it was good! Udon, saba, and lightly fried (I keep typing "friend.") cucumbers, eggplants, and bell peppers. No, it's not tsukemono (pickled THINGZ), which usually come with these kind of meals, but maybe another time :).

I don't want to end with that picture so how about this super happy-puts-me-in-a-good-mood picture of Deerhood that I used in my presentation today?