Saturday, April 15, 2006
"In my country we call that child abuse", senior citizens with sticks, and I eat my words (deliciously) on Japanese curry: Osaka 4 (Spring 2005)
This is a letter I wrote to my sister near the end of my time in Japan. It's kind of boring, but it talks about my job, for those interested in what it's like teaching in a Japanese elementary school.
Well, let me tell you about my day, if you want a rough idea of what my life is like here. Today I woke up on my futon on the floor, turned on my portable heater, made myself a fruit salad and checked the weather online, then biked about 30 minutes to my elementary school which is in the center of town surrounded by pachinko parlors and love hotels. I love the kids there, I have been with them since the very beginning and they are so freaking cute... they all swarmed me and tried to warm their cold little hands in mine this morning (Japanese kids for some strange reason are not allowed to wear coats, hats, mittens, scarves to school. Oh and they wear tiny little shorts (boys) or skirts (girls). Poor little bastards! Anyway I taught them "Who are you? I am Kyoko. Who is he? He is Yuusuke. Who am I? You are Sarah". For their age level, all that grammar is a LOT to master. These kids are 3rd grade to 6th grade, but I've been working with them once a week for almost 2 years now and they have learned so much! They are way better than my junior high school students. We played "old maid" or babanuki in Japanese, each kid got a playing card and had to approach other students and ask one of those three questions. Then they switched cards. There were 2 old maid cards. Believe it or not, they totally loved it, and I walked around the room and listened to 40 Japanese kids enthusiastically speaking English. Felt like a fairy tale. I wish every day could be Wednesday! I taught two classes in the morning. At lunch I didn't eat school lunch with the teachers at elementary like I usually do (was a bit bummed because it was yummy japanese curry). [Note: in an earlier post I disparage Japanese curry. How young and foolish I was. Japanese curry is the best. My favorite shop, if only for the name, is a chain called "T&A Curry House." Oh Japan and your frequent inadvertent sexual innuendos. If only you knew the joy you bring to my life.] The Junior High I go to on Wednesday afternoons was having exams and some of the teachers invited me out to lunch. It was two teachers that I teach with, and two other randoms who came even though they don't speak any engish. Don't know why, maybe they wanted to see me eat? I also got to talk with a girl at the school who just got accepted to an English intensive high school with the chance to go to the US for college. I was really proud of her, I hope she succeeds. Tried to give her some tips on how to practice English without paying for it and without getting an American boyfriend! Suggested tapes, comic books, TV and movies, etc. After school biking home I visited this wicked used Kimono shop that I found last week. I was just there to make a map for my friends so they could find it too, but I looked inside and found another gorgeous one, for only $7! Its 100% silk, so beautiful. They sell the sashes too (obi) but I didn't find the perfect one, I'm going to keep looking. Now I have four, which is a bit excessive, but I am hoping to give some as gifts. Though definitely keeping this one for myself, I'm so in love with it. There is an international house that hosts a Kimono event every so often where old ladies from the community come in and bring their Kimonos and dress interested foreigners in them. So I'll bring it to that and have them dress me in it. Then I did some more errands (went to the post office and the camera shop) went home briefly, and biked to Starbucks (well one of the many) to meet my friend Peyton for dinner. We take a Taiko drumming class together Weds nights. Taiko is traditional japanese drumming, you use these huge drums and beat them in unison, it sounds and looks really cool. It's definitly the most bad-ass of the traditional Japanese arts. Far from the tea ceremony or calligraphy! The lesson is so much fun it's me and Peyton and all these old grannies who are just taking Taiko for the first time too. Japanese old people are so active I can't imagine that many senior citizens in America taking up drumming at the age of 70!. Some of them are not the most rhythmically gifted people in the universe however... :) After Taiko I left my bike because I have to go back to that area tomorrow anyway to teach some private lessons (one in Spanish, to this bohemian musician type who loves latin music and wants to move to Cuba, that's really fun, and one to a kind of scary right-wing nationalist type guy who I am thinking about dropping as a student, but who's been a real education for me in that part of Japanese society.) Tomorrow the school I go to on Thursdays has tests, so I don't have to go in. So I'll sleep in, and probably read in bed, and i don't know what else. It'll be a lazy day. maybe I'll go out for lunch, go to park and watch the teenage bands who always set up there, or just bike around trying to spot the dog dressed in the weirdest outfit. depends on the weather... and hopefully Ken and I will get something accomplished in planning our trip to Vietnam. So there you have it, a day in the life. :P ¶ 9:49 PM
Well, let me tell you about my day, if you want a rough idea of what my life is like here. Today I woke up on my futon on the floor, turned on my portable heater, made myself a fruit salad and checked the weather online, then biked about 30 minutes to my elementary school which is in the center of town surrounded by pachinko parlors and love hotels. I love the kids there, I have been with them since the very beginning and they are so freaking cute... they all swarmed me and tried to warm their cold little hands in mine this morning (Japanese kids for some strange reason are not allowed to wear coats, hats, mittens, scarves to school. Oh and they wear tiny little shorts (boys) or skirts (girls). Poor little bastards! Anyway I taught them "Who are you? I am Kyoko. Who is he? He is Yuusuke. Who am I? You are Sarah". For their age level, all that grammar is a LOT to master. These kids are 3rd grade to 6th grade, but I've been working with them once a week for almost 2 years now and they have learned so much! They are way better than my junior high school students. We played "old maid" or babanuki in Japanese, each kid got a playing card and had to approach other students and ask one of those three questions. Then they switched cards. There were 2 old maid cards. Believe it or not, they totally loved it, and I walked around the room and listened to 40 Japanese kids enthusiastically speaking English. Felt like a fairy tale. I wish every day could be Wednesday! I taught two classes in the morning. At lunch I didn't eat school lunch with the teachers at elementary like I usually do (was a bit bummed because it was yummy japanese curry). [Note: in an earlier post I disparage Japanese curry. How young and foolish I was. Japanese curry is the best. My favorite shop, if only for the name, is a chain called "T&A Curry House." Oh Japan and your frequent inadvertent sexual innuendos. If only you knew the joy you bring to my life.] The Junior High I go to on Wednesday afternoons was having exams and some of the teachers invited me out to lunch. It was two teachers that I teach with, and two other randoms who came even though they don't speak any engish. Don't know why, maybe they wanted to see me eat? I also got to talk with a girl at the school who just got accepted to an English intensive high school with the chance to go to the US for college. I was really proud of her, I hope she succeeds. Tried to give her some tips on how to practice English without paying for it and without getting an American boyfriend! Suggested tapes, comic books, TV and movies, etc. After school biking home I visited this wicked used Kimono shop that I found last week. I was just there to make a map for my friends so they could find it too, but I looked inside and found another gorgeous one, for only $7! Its 100% silk, so beautiful. They sell the sashes too (obi) but I didn't find the perfect one, I'm going to keep looking. Now I have four, which is a bit excessive, but I am hoping to give some as gifts. Though definitely keeping this one for myself, I'm so in love with it. There is an international house that hosts a Kimono event every so often where old ladies from the community come in and bring their Kimonos and dress interested foreigners in them. So I'll bring it to that and have them dress me in it. Then I did some more errands (went to the post office and the camera shop) went home briefly, and biked to Starbucks (well one of the many) to meet my friend Peyton for dinner. We take a Taiko drumming class together Weds nights. Taiko is traditional japanese drumming, you use these huge drums and beat them in unison, it sounds and looks really cool. It's definitly the most bad-ass of the traditional Japanese arts. Far from the tea ceremony or calligraphy! The lesson is so much fun it's me and Peyton and all these old grannies who are just taking Taiko for the first time too. Japanese old people are so active I can't imagine that many senior citizens in America taking up drumming at the age of 70!. Some of them are not the most rhythmically gifted people in the universe however... :) After Taiko I left my bike because I have to go back to that area tomorrow anyway to teach some private lessons (one in Spanish, to this bohemian musician type who loves latin music and wants to move to Cuba, that's really fun, and one to a kind of scary right-wing nationalist type guy who I am thinking about dropping as a student, but who's been a real education for me in that part of Japanese society.) Tomorrow the school I go to on Thursdays has tests, so I don't have to go in. So I'll sleep in, and probably read in bed, and i don't know what else. It'll be a lazy day. maybe I'll go out for lunch, go to park and watch the teenage bands who always set up there, or just bike around trying to spot the dog dressed in the weirdest outfit. depends on the weather... and hopefully Ken and I will get something accomplished in planning our trip to Vietnam. So there you have it, a day in the life. :P ¶ 9:49 PM
