Well I have had a very unconventional Christmas this year. But I have to say it has been a really REALLY great one.
Typically Christmas day is spent having dinner at home with family, opening presents and lazying around. Which is fine, its wonderful in fact. I love Christmas for these reasons. But when you dont have family around, its great that you can turn to friends to share the holidays with.


First there was Js house party on Xmas Eve Eve. It was a mellow secret Santa thing with dinner and drinks. Everyone ended having such a good time I guess cause everyone just ended up crashing at Js. I met some new people which was great. The next day, Xmas Eve, I took myself Xmas shopping. I hit up my favorite used English bookstore out here. I bought 5 books and a CD. Its nice to buy your own presents. Then you get just what you wanted.

Then I met up with a group of friends on Xmas day. We had dinner at a shamelessly American restaurant in Ropongi, which was what everyone was in the mood for. Then we crossed the street to relax and keep on drinking in a sheesha bar. The bar cleared out at around 12 (Last train) but we just decided to keep on going. We danced and danced and some smoke. Then we left the sheesha behind in favor or more dancing. We went to some bar/club and continued to dance. Even though western pop/dance/hip hop in Japanese bars and clubs is usually 3 years old, it was still an awesome night.

And now I an exhausted and will need a vacation from my vacation.

Hope everyone had a great Xmas too!

Pencil Smashers

So of course on my last day in school, my last class before my break had to be 6-1 (A senseis class).

They surprised me today by being relatively behaved and quiet in comparison to other lessons we have had together. Also to my surprise A sensei actually graced us with his presence!!! What a shock for me, he usually sends an assistant teacher to sit at the back and stair into space, in his place. So we made our way through my fun filled lesson. (It is a fun lesson! I have done it with EVER class i have and they all love it) After one of my activities I collected my pencils (I have a bunch of pencils in the classroom for the kids to use, instead of having them bring their own pencil cases to class. It saves a lot of time for everyone and I thought it would be easier for the kids.) After collecting my pencils I looked down and saw that about half the class had smashed the tips of the pencils, very obviously on purpose. I was so pissed! I stopped the lesson and yelled at them for a minute. Still A sensei coward at the back of the class. He felt no need to interfere in any way. They were shocked and embarrassed that I did not just per tend not to notice. They got very quite and serious after that. We moved on and played another game, but the group of kids I know was involved in the pencil smashing (heehee) were noticeably sulking in the corner, not participating. At the end of the lesson I took another minute to tell them that smashing my pencils was very rude. It sucks cause I know they dont understand exactly what I am saying. They know what I am saying, but if they understood me fully, I feel like I could get a lot further with them. What I wanted to do was yell at them and then make them all stand up and in true Japanese disciplinary fashion, make a deep bow to me and apologize in English. Perhaps I will do that next time. Anyway I am so pissed. And I am even more angry because A sensei took absolutely no interest in my lesson or in disciplining his students. And I can do nothing about it. I cant talk to anyone at the school and my company has been of no help to me on this matter. I really want to talk to some of the other teachers about it, but I am afraid they will just go tell A Sensei and then I will look foolish.
You cant ever tell anyone how you feel, which results in all this passive aggressiveness! Obviously I have offended A Sensei, I wish he would just man up and TELL me what I did already so he can move on with his life, and I can have a chance to enjoy teaching his kids who are obviously very bright. BUT NO. he cant tell me how he feels, and so his only option is to disrespect me in front of his kids, leaving me feeling frustrated and confused and to day dream about spitting on his "onigiri" or into his green tea, while no one is looking. ITS So STUPID! I never thought I would value the more open system of communicating we have in the West.

Anyway, in response to my classes and co-workers own passive aggressive childishness, I decided to respond with my own passive aggressive move by displaying the collection of 20 broken pencils on my desk in the teachers lounge. Next year, I will very humbly and respectfully request that H sensei, a 3rd grade teacher in charge of me, buy me more pencils as the 6th graders "keep on braking them, I dont know why, heehee(smiles very shyly)". And adding a little salt in the wound, I realize I have to buy this stuff that they ripe up, with my own money!! anyway, then next year I will request that each child in 6-1 bring their own pencils to class from now on, as they are incapable of respecting my things.

Dont judge me, im angry.

To be fare though, I work with about 40 teachers and I only ever have a problem with this one man. So those are pretty good odds.

"Xmas" in Japan

Christmas in Japan. Maybe you have heard that they celebrate Christmas out here. Well do they EVER! The Japanese LOVE Christmas, but they have sort of re-invented the holiday a bit to better serve their own cultural purposes. And here is a brif description of my observations of the Christmas season thus far in Japan.

In Japan as you might imagine, the religious aspect of Christmas has been completely removed. People often refer to Christmas as "Xmas" not in the sense of an abbreviation, as we might do in the west, but in spoken English, as in "Merry Xmas!" You will see no images or Jesus and no manger sense. But it is still an incredibly popular holiday. And my guess is that Christmas in Japan seems to be gaining popularity each year.

Santa Clause is obviously the major symbol of Christmas here. But dont call him Santa Clause, cause hes "Santa san". The Japanese have brought over all the other symbols and characters associated with Christmas as well, elves, reindeer, snow, stars, bells, the Christmas tree, presents all of it. In my schools I often get to sit in on other teachers lessons, like calligraphy or reading or social studies, what have you. Last week I attended a 1st graders music lesson. They sang the Japanese version of "Rudolph the red noise reindeer" and another song about Santa-San which was complete with a very funny dance.

Christmas however, in past has been a holiday associated with couples, not children. Its a holiday where lovers get together and go on dates, or visit love motels, or go on mini break vacations together. Its not even really a family oriented celebration. But now it is clearly expanding to include children, families and young singles more and more.

Can you guess what the most popular thing to eat on Xmas eve is??? Its Kentucky Fried Chicken.!! Yes. the fast food chain, and its as horrible here as it is at home. But its so popular that the fast food chain puts together a special Xmas take away menu, and people are advised to pre-order their dinners far in advance, perhaps a month before Xmas!! I think the reason this is a popular choice for Japanese people is that they are aware of the western Christmas tradition of roasting a turkey, or a ham, or whatever you eat over the holiday. They have seen it many times in holiday films and TV. But Turkey is hard to come by here and even harder to come by is an oven. Most apartments and even homes don't have them. So people would have no means of cooking a bird even if they got there hands on one. Hence the "Kentucky" trend.

Another strange Japanese Xmas trend is the Christmas cake. In all the grocery stores huge displays are erected with ingredients and decorations for making the perfect Christmas cake. My guess is that the girl makes a cake (Japan is still very much a chauvinistic society) and then the couple enjoy eating it on their Christmas date.

Right now and for the past few weeks, tons and tons of twinkly lights have been put up everywhere. And a Christmas tree can be found in all the major shopping districts around Tokyo. Even in Toride around our station there is a nice little "illumination" as they like to call it out here, of blue lights draped in the trees lining the street leading you away from the station. (It looks very festive and cute.) The favorite color for Xmas lights is blue here for some reason.

Sat night out

Note: a wise fellow blogger creates nick names for those she writes about, so that their identities stay relatively anonymous. So from now on I have decided to do the same so that I can write more freely about my social circle over here.

I had a pretty awesome weekend.
I dont often write about the sort of normal nights out that I have here in Tokyo. But I think I will start to document them. They wont be of much interest to you guys, but its fun for me to write about them and have them documented here.
It was a friends Birthday. We all met up in Shibuya at the Elephant Cafe, sort of Asian Fusion, we did a set menu and nomihodai (all you can drink). It was a really good time. I met some new people which is always great and got to hang out with my lil group of girls who I am growing to love more and more each week we spend together. A, You, JJ, T-cat, & M. After dinner we moved on to karaoke. I have to say I really love karaoke.
(If you come out to karaoke with me the things I am most likely to sing are: Norah Jones "dont know why"; Dusty Springfield "Son of a Preacher man"; Stevie Nicks "Dreams"; something by Madonna or Fiona Apple and probably Micheal Jackson.)
It was a really large group of us though, maybe 20 in all, so I only sang two songs, but still had such a good time. At some point we were joined by a few more folks including a young man dressed as a dinosaur. That was weird, but funny. After karaoke about 7 of us went back and crashed at JJ place. The party kept on going when we got there, drinking game, scrabble and lots of horsing around till about 4am. I fell asleep on the couch and kind of half participated in it all. Everyone slept till about 10. I woke up not feeling too bad, but everyone else was suffering. I cleaned JJs flat while everyone else went back to sleep. I felt really bad for JJ cause she lives with roommates and we kinda trashed the place, and they are all always so nice about letting people stay over and so I decided to give back a little by scrubbing their kitchen sink.
After cleaning, me and T-cat headed out together for the station around 3. But we decided to stop of at a kombini on the way, which turned into having coffee, which turned into having dinner at Zest a tex mex place, which turned into having desert at the kombini and finally hopping onto the Yamanote line and heading of on our different routs home.

I am back at my flat in inaka Japan. But its always nice to come home, even if no one is here. My little loft bed is so comfy and I am reading a really good book right now, The Northern Lights. I like it a lot. I am going to crawl in bed now and read it.
Oyasumi

Halloween 2007 We ROCKED IT!

I have not had the chance to write about Halloween yet. It was a while back but better late than never I always say, so a quick entry about Halloween.

I had a particularly good one this year. I went out with my Nihongo gurupu of gals. We all met at JJs place and got ready. We decided to revive the 80s for that night. When I got to JJs, T-cat was already there and we started getting dressed. A few other kids trickled in gradually and we had a rather large party happening. All the girls were dressed in 80s regalia and T-cat and I became the hairdressers teasing and spraying every ones hair into amazing 80s dos. T-cat did an amazing job with eye shadow too. After that we took cabs up the street to a bar near Ebisu station. The crowd was very international and EVERYONE was in costume which was really fun. I bumped into Navi who strangely knows a friend, who knows T-cat. The world is so small. We danced the night away. We closed the place down and were some of the last to leave the bar! Then we all took cabs back to JJs and slept. I had to wake up at 9am that morning (Sun) and rush back to Ibaraki to meet my IC and move apartments. It was such a rough day. After only having slept a few hours I had to spend the day lugging all my stuff from my old apartment to my new one. And let me tell ya, that hairspray did not want to come out. I washed my hair 3 times that day and it STILL felt sticky!!

Its serious business people.

I have neglected my blog in the most horrible way. I am truly sorry. I am just busy and lazy and lame.

Anyway, I went to Nikko yesterday. It was beautiful. It was the most perfect day to go. I had the day off, Tuesday, I am not sure why, but no one that works for my branch had work that day. well i took the opportunity to miss the weekend crowds and trek up to Nikko for the day. Nikko is a small town in Tochigi prefecture. Its famous for its shrines and temples. One in particular, the Toshogu shrine. It is a very flashy temple you might say. Its covered in intricate carvings and painted bright colors. Its very uncharacteristic of some of the other Buddhist shrines I have seen here. It reminded me of the sort of Buddhist shrines we saw in Darjeeling.

The train ride up took 2 hours. I love riding on trains though, so that was a treat for me. It was SUCH a nice day too. The sky was so blue and I had the best time just looking out the window.

The town of Nikko is not very interesting. I basically headed straight for the temple complex as soon as I arrived. Its about a 15min walk from the station. On the way you pass a very famous bridge called the Shinkyou bridge. It is very beautiful.

Then you enter the temple complex from near the base of the bridge. Its a bit like a temple park. There are several temples and shrines on the grounds. Both Shinto and Buddhist. The most famous is the Toshogu Shrine, but another really interesting one was the Rinnoji temple. I also saw a Buddhist service of sorts. I really wanted to take pictures, but it would have been inappropriate. But there was a monk and he was chanting in front of a fire. It was really interesting.

I wondered around the grounds and visited all the temples and shrines. It was a really nice day. Its fall so many of the leaves where changing, which was especially nice in this area.

I was pressed for time so i did not visit Nikkos other famous attraction which its National Park, with waterfalls and a lake. I must go back. Also wanna visit one of the onsen!

Oh yeah, and there was this little shrine for children. I dont know what little children pray for. Maybe good weather so they can play outside. Or maybe toys or candy, well you got me, but it was really cute.


OK well this is a pretty boring entry. The only funny thing that happened was when I was riding on the train home I fell asleep and put my foot up on the seat across from me. Only a little bit of my shoe was touching and it was not even touching the seat itself, it was on the front of the seat. Anyway, I got yelled at by the man sitting across from me. Old men are always yelling at me.

If you wanna see more pictures of Nikko check out my Picsa gallary. Just follow this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/Marjoriebyrd/Nikko

Harajuku on a lazy Saturday

I was just bumbling around Harajuku on Saturday. I had never visited the shrine there in Yoyogi park so i decided to go have a look. Its such a beautiful park and the shrine is amazing. Its so quiet there. you dont feel like you are in Tokyo at all. I happened to be there while a wedding ceremony was being held. It was beautiful. I dont know much about the traditional Japanese wedding. The wedding party was marching around the grounds of the shrine and then the took photos on the side of the building and then finally disappeared into one of the restricted courtyards.






After that I bought a box of Pretz and a C.C.Lemon and sat down to watch the circus by the overpass by Harajuku station. This is where all the teenagers come in their crazy costumes and sit around and get their pictures taken. Saturday is not really the day for this. Sunday is when all the major cos players are out, but Saturday was interesting enough. I sat next to this man who did not face the crowds of people, but instead faced the street and put on a rockabilly lip singing performance. Even when a group of Scottish tourist decided to be his backup dancers and twirled onto his imaginary stage doing a Scottish folk dance, he still did not turn around to face the crowds of people now watching, but continued to sing (scream) into the street as cars merged onto the overpass. It was very strange.

There where quite a lot of performers and painters and this man dressed in a pink heart costume.

Undokai "GO SHIRO KUMI!"

Lets go shiro kumi lets go!!

I got to participate in one of my gakkos undokai (sports festival). Its kinda like field day but way more intense. The whole school is divided into two teams. White and Red. I was on the white team (*we won, by the way!!! YEAH!) The kids participate in a series of races and games. Some of which are a bit scary and very dangerous!! Then the grades do dances. The 1st and 2nd graders did a dance with pompoms to some Jpop tune. The 3rd and 4th graders did a dance with wooden sticks from Okinawa. And the 5th and 6th graders did a marching band thing, with color guard and all. I also ran in one of the races!! I ran my butt off. It was called "Lets Run" or something like that. The kids run up and grab a card. Each card has a teacher or students name on it. Then the kid racing has to run and find that person and they have to both run across the finish line together. I laughed so hard i think it slowed me and my partner down. I also lead one of the games. I called out a color or a fruit to the 3rd graders and they had to run up and grab the right ball and then do like a spoon and egg race with it. Anyway, I had a great time.

Visit my Picsa gallary for more pics, I have tons of cute ones.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Marjoriebyrd/Undokai

Toride Matsuri

On my way home on Wednesday I spotted a bunch of girls in yukatas getting off at my stop. I knew this meant that there was a festival going on in in Toride (how could I have not known about this!!). So I followed them and the building crowd, down one of the side streets, near the river and found the matsuri!!! Yippie! There where tons of stalls, selling toys and lots of games. One that seems very popular is catching goldfish or koi fish or small turtles. There where stalls selling masks, shaved ice, octopus on a stick, and okonimiyaki.

As I walked along the stalls I spotted a stage on which a group of masked performers where putting on a play, maybe it was Noh theater, I am not sure. They where accompanied by a small group of musicians and it was a wonderful performance. I continued to walk to the end of the block, and much to my delight, I saw a large group of men preparing for a ritual that is performed at many festivals year round. Its the carrying of a small wooden shrine. About a hundred young men (and some women) hoist a small, but obviously heavy shrine onto their shoulders and then into the air while chanting. I am sure you have seen video of this kind of thing on TV. I was so excited to get to see the real thing. It was pretty intense. The group of men slowly make there way down the street with the shrine. Accompanying them in the persuasion are, priests, lantern carriers, the man leading the chants, and a small band of drummers and flute players. The men carry the shrine on there shoulders chanting, and because its so heavy it sways and it is clear they have little control over it, so another group of men are in charge of pushing the shrine and directing the group in the right directing and keeping it from hurtling into the crowned, which is what it almost did a few times!! The men chant and then begin to bunch slightly while walking, then all of a sudden they hoist the shrine into the air, straitening their arms. It looks incredibly painful and difficult, but it was really thrilling and exciting to watch.

It was such a fun thing to stumble upon! I also got to see many of my students, as I work in this city, many of them where there with their families. It was nice to see them.
to veiw more pictures check out my Picsa gallary: http://picasaweb.google.com/Marjoriebyrd/TorideMasturi

Hanami in Asakusa

So its summer time here and that means matsuri (festivals) and hanami (fireworks). Last weekend I met some friends in Asakusa to watch the annual fireworks display over the river. I got to Asakusa earlier than everyone else and hung out in the festival and took pics. It seems to me that these festival are basically about food and dressing up, which are two very important things in my opinion. The women looked beautiful in there yukatas (summer kimono). I wanted to wear mine, but i still have not figured out how to put it on, it is confusing folks. I hung out in the shrine and ate and watched everyone getting settled to watch the fireworks while i waited for my friends. More and more people kept showing up until it was a virtual mob on the street and you could hardly walk down the side walk. My friends showed up and we started to make our way towards the bridge where some other friends had space for us to sit. Well there where so many people trying to make it across the bridge the police had to block it off and send us across in groups. This meant we were standing on the crowded street for ages slowly making our way up to the bridge. It was hot and we were all feeling claustrophobic, but still having a good time and then the fireworks began on both sides of the bridge and we ended up getting an OK view. Then we walked to a yakitori restaurant on the other side of Asaksa after the show was over. They had closed down the streets all around Asakusa and the shrine and people had set up picnics and where camping out in the middle on the street, it looked really fun and next year, thats what I am doing!!!! Anyway we had yakitori (grilled meats on skewers). I ate lots of strange chicken pats and liver (which i hate). Then we headed over to Shibuya on the last trains of the night for some karaoke. There where about 10 of us in the group. We booked the karaoke box for the rest of the night (12-5am) and sang our hearts out. Then at 5am we made our way with the rest of Shibuya to the trains station to all split off into our different directions of Tokyo. Was a good night and a fun festival.

My fellow adventurers!

Jimbocho

Im on summer vacation!!! Its so awesome to have summer vacation again!! So having August off has given me ime to continue my exploration of tokyo and the suronding areas.

Yesterdasy I went into the city to do some exploring which is something I truly love to do. I just love cities I guess. I used to do the same thing when i lived in London. I would go in on a Sunday and wonder around for hours and hours, never buying anything or doing anything in particular, not going anywhere, just seeking to discover secret places.
Tokyo is so vast and divers, I find I am constantly stumbling accidentally into these new and beautiful areas of the city. I keep having these amazing walks were I find a hidden shrine or a lantern lined night market. Today I explored Jimbocho, an area known for its abundance of used book shops. They have truly ancient books for sale here, costing hundreds of dollars. Aswell as newer used books and a strange number of highly specialized stores only selling things like, play books from musicals, or antique sheet music, or pornographic books from the 50s and 60s. I found one tiny store tucked down an ally, it was so full of old moldy books that the stacks where literally to the celling. I am certain that the shop keeper was actually a toad who had magically dissguised himself as an old grumpy man. This shop specialized in old and beautifully illustrated antique books. Most of the stories seemed to be Japanese folktales, many of the pages covered in ornately and likely hand painted, color illustrations. Some of the books were not books at all, but actual scrolls!!! The books impressed me so much that I have decided to treat myself and purchase one. I had my eye on a small one costing $50 or so. I will probably go back with my mom to pick one out. There where soooo many beautiful ones I could not decide just then. Anyway, the sun was shining and I spent my day leisurely walking down the crocked alleyways of Tokyo's book filled lanes. I sat for a while on a bench on the tree lined bank of a river corsing threw the city. I watched the people bussling past on their way to work on one side of me and one the other side, people in paddleing boats floated along. I have spent many, many days just like this one, and I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity to be here.

YAMANBA!!!

One of the things that is so fascinating about Japan is the outrageous youth culture. We know about Harajuku girls for instance. But there are tons of other weird subcultures, tribes almost, particularly among girls. They are so noticeable because they seem to adhere so religiously to the fashions prescribed by their "tribe". I really enjoy spotting these groups and classifying them. heehee. Different areas of Tokyo are good for spotting different groups, as is the case in most cities. Though there are tons of subcultures to discuss, today I think we will focus on my personal favorite: the Yamanba.

These are Yamaba.

I saw pics of these girls in magazines around, but I had never seen one up close. Then yesterday, in Shibuya (a yamanba mecca) i saw a real one! You should have seen me when i saw a real yamanba!! The subculture peeked around 2000 and there are supposed to be no more yamanbas, so when i saw one I got really excited! I turned to my Japanese friend as we were passing her, walking threw Hachiko crossing and i said "Jenny look, a Yamanba!! I want my picture with her!" Jenny pushed me forward, hurrying me along without a word. Yamanbas are scary girls I guess.

I did some research online and found out about why they are called yamanbas. Its really interesting. The where giving that name because they resemble a character in Japanese folk lore called "yamauba". Stories about yamauba are a common theme in Noh theater. A Yamauba is a mountain crone often portray with a large moth and an ugly face, she has wild white hair and a tattered old (usually red) kimono. She is often a character in Noh plays (plays performed where the actors where masks) who prays upon travelers. She tricks them in various ways and then eats them. She can change form, often making herself look like a beautiful young girl or a helpless old lady and can animate her hair sometimes using it to grab her victims, pulling them into her nest of hair. She is like a female boogie man sort of.


(This is what a yamauba looks like when she is depicted in a Noh play.)

The fashion yamanbas of today are a spin off of the ganguro girl. Ganguro girls have tans and bleach their hair, they were bright clothes and platform shoes and crazy fake nails. The yamamba wear all of this stuff tooo, but they have crazy messed up hair usually and awful make-up (what is referred to as "panda" make-up) and intense tans.They are known to be dangerous girls who would maybe pull a knife on you or something, and they are also supposed to have bad hygiene (whatever that means, we can only guess).


Well there is my lil japanese culture lesson of the day. Out comes the sociologist in me.

Crying

My heart is broken.

My closest friend here is going back to London cause she was offered a much better job.
I am so depressed.

She was someone i really grew close to.
I have other friends out here, but most of them live far away, or in Tokyo. I can see them on the weekends, but it was so nice to have someone close by to meet up with when I had a bad day and needed a drink, or when I was lonely. We always had such a good time hanging out and going sightseeing and had planned to do a lot more traveling in Japan.

It can be hard out here cause I dont have friends at work or family or any other friends in my area. So I spend a lot of time on my own. Sophie was my family out here. Now she is going and I am going to miss her so much!!

I would always say "what would i do if you were not hear?". Well now she is going! What will I do????

poo poo

More purinkuro fun! This time with Jenny. We hung out this weekend. I crashed at her place she lives one stop from Shibuya, which must be so awesome!!!!

(and yes, in case you are wondering that poop has a moustache)

midori or chairo

Today was fun. My Principal brought in his Japanese sword for me to see. First thing this morning I was swinging a samurai sword around the principals office. It was really heavy and looked REALLY sharp. Then I sat in on a second grade class to observe their home room teacher. It was really interesting. This particular teacher is really nice and we get along well so she sat me down next to 2 other kids in the back row, I had my own text book and my own little desk. It was a kanji lesson and I learned how to write: wing, face, home, black, and sugar. The teacher told the class at the end of the lesson that I had good penmen ship so all the kids ran over to see my work. They were very funny critiquing my kanji.
I spent recess hanging out with these two 1st grade girls. They recruited me to help them collect grass hoppers in a field on the side of the school. So we chased after grasshoppers for what must have been half an hour. It seemed to make a difference whether they were brown (chairo) or green (midori) and I dont know why we collected them all in the end.
I like to play with the younger kids cause the speak a lot of Japanese to me. Even though I dont understand most of it, I per tend to so they will keep talking. I learn the most Japanese this way and I get to try out new words. I dont feel as apprehensive trying out new words with a first grader as I would say, in the teachers lounge. So its really good practice for me.
2 new words I learned today:
zembun -everyone, everything, all of it
and
owari - finished

Well now I am headed out to meet up with a friend for drinks, talk to you guys later.

Marjorie

She means business

(This is a picture of the entrance to one of my schools, this is where guests and teachers remove their outdoor shoes and put on their indoor ones.)

Today, I received a business card from a 2nd grader.
I also attended ping pong club and discovered that I am AWESOME at ping pong (again this is against 10year olds, but still, I am pretty awesome at it.

Kashiwa

"Limu sawa."
"Limu sawa futatsu?"
"Soo desu, futatsu desu, onegaishimasu."



Sake

SAFE!

While playing "Duck Duck Goose" (which I modified slightly "goodnight, goodnight, good morning!) today with my first graders a little boy did not make it into the spot in time. He did a proper home run slide and held there for a minute. The other kids laughed and while reclining he pretended to smoke a cigarette. I am all about a first graders sense of humor! I love this kid.

Also today on my schedule, a fire drill was listed during 3rd period. When I asked the other teachers about it they said "No fire drill" They spoke amongst themselves trying to figure out how to say it in English. "Earthquake drill?" I guessed. "No" and then the Secretary pretended to shoot me. They all laughed and then one of them drew a picture of a man holding a knife. I was confused so she looked it up in the dictionary. "Take shelter training." she said. Take shelter from a crazy man who runs into the school with a knife, training??" I asked. She nodded.So this afternoon the students where prepared for this possible occurrence. I was told to wait in the teachers lounge while the kids rushed about quietly with there teachers. WEIRD!! What where they doing?? I hope they dont tell me to wait in the teachers lounge if that really happens. And why on earth are they rehearsing something like that?? I know things like that happen in the stats, but in Japan???

Lately I have noticed the Japanese using English words like "Safe!" They yell this randomly when they have just avoided something bad. Or "Lucky" again used when you have avoided something bad. And then there is adding "desu" to everything. Desu is a verb, it means to be.
"OK desu." "How are you desu?" "Hello desu."

See you tomorrow desu,

Majo