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

Janken

The Japanese love "purinkuro" or "print club". The "purinkuro" here are amazing! You can draw all over them and put clip art on them and you can make them for only a $. The girls here have these tiny photo albums FULL of "purinkuro" pictures.

Forgot to tell you about the Japanese obsession with "rock, scissors, paper" or "Janken Po" as it is known here.

"Janken po aiko deshou" is what the kids chant. They are really obsessed. If it's a tie during one of my games in class or if the kids are arguing about who gets to drink my milk at lunch (I always put it back, which I am not supposed to do) I simply say "janken" and they go to it. Hey make this huge display of it, as if they are battling for their life. It's hilarious. And they never argue over the issue after "janken" has settled it, it's done, over. I probably preside over 10 "janken" matches a day.

It all reminds me of a video game I played as a kid, what was it?? At the end of each stage you had to have a rock, scissors, paper, match with an evil gigantic hand person. Darcy do you remember which game it was? Was it Alex Kid?? Well it all makes sense now, clearly it was a Japanese game originally and of course they had to have "janken" it.

Juku Kids

I have been slacking with the blog lately, I know. But whenever I wanna write I am at school and I can't just hop on the computer and start typing a way. Let see, what's going on…..

I love the tea lady at one of my schools. She is like my grandmother! She has this sweet face and she helps me study kanji when I have time in between classes. She even brought in a kanji work book for me to study out of! What a sweet lady. She is always teasing me and talking to me. She speaks no English and I don't speak Japanese so I just listen to her and throw in the "uhh hu" and the "really" when I think they are appropriate. She is lovely.

OK so sometimes when the kids are acting up and playing around and not focusing on the lesson, it makes me mad. As you can imagine. I don't yell at them or anything, but I get frustrated. Well today I was on the platform waiting for my train to go home after school. I always see these kids with different backpacks (blue) from the standard ones the kids in the public schools use. I always thought they went to privet school that's why their bags were different. But I was looking at this one little boy also waiting on the platform and I realized he went to my school and is one of the kids I have a hard time with always acting up during my lessons. I realized that those kids don't go to a different privet school at all, but are attending "juku" or cram school after school gets out.

For those of you not familiar with Japanese society, juku is a privet school that kids attend for often several hours, for advanced study. Seeing him made me think about the whole juku situation and his situation in particular. He has just been at school from 8 – 3:30 or something and now at 5:00 is going back to school and will probably be there till 9 or 10 at night. I have seen kids riding home on the subway at 11 at night with juku backpacks on. So what happens is that kids play during school hours. They don't pay attention, they sleep and mess around during lessons because they are attending class at night. It's a really messed up system. But it has taught me not take it personally when the kids screw off in my class because, like that 4^th grader, they are probably going to have to be in class all evening while I am at home watching TV. Poor kids!

I don't know what the deal is with all that. But the Japanese really do work hard! I see kids in their school uniforms on Sat and Sun. and on holidays all the time. Obviously they are still going into school for club or sports even on weekends and holidays. It makes me realize how lazy we are. I could not handle all of that. A Japanese friend of mine said when she was new to her job at a Japanese marketing firm she would have to be there at 7am and would catch the last train home sometimes at 12:00 at night!!! That is standard! WOW.

Well I will try to be better at posting on here, don't give up on me! I love writing in this blog.

See you tomorrow desu.

Marjorie

I wore the mask!

I have been gardening with my principal lately. In the afternoon, when I don't have class and have done all my lesson planning, he is outside planting away and I ask to join him. Japanese schools often have rows and rows of flower boxes and they require a tremendous amount of work. So my principal is outside a lot caring for the plants (this is the case at my other schools too!! Seems to be what you do, when you are the principle). I have been offering to help lately cause the weather is nice and I get bored sitting around. My principal at this school is a really funny character. He is really into traditional Japanese art and culture. He carves No masks as a hobby. No is a form of Japanese theater, where the actors wear masks and the stories it seems often center on the same characters. I mentioned him in one of my previous posts. He also Plays kendo (Japanese sword fighting) He performed in front of the school last month with another kendo expert. They did a routine of sorts, it was amazing! But anyway my principal is really funny. He is always saying to me 'I play Kendo" "You like kendo?" "Very Beautiful" "I make mask" "You like mask" "Very beautiful" "I plant flower" "You like plant flower?" "Very beautiful" And he kind of yells these questions and statements at me. He makes these same statements about 3 times a week. He is obviously a very proud man and very showy. He likes his ego stroked and he always want to hear you say "Yes kendo is very beautiful!!" But the questions never END! No matter what I am doing, he comes over to me all day long and asks. "You eat lunch?" "You eat Japanese food?" "Which you like bread or rice?" "You like konyaku?" "You like natto?" "You like book?" "You like teaching?" "You like Japan?" "You like Kendo?" "I play kendo." "Very beautiful." "Yes, your masks are very beautiful" He wants a certain answer from you. You can tell. He is funny. I hope he does not hit on me!!!

I got to go to a regular class and observe one of the teachers teaching their lessons today. I have many of these scheduled throughout next week. I have really wanted to do this! I wanted to see how the kids are with their home room teachers and how the teachers handle them. The class I sat in on was 1^st grade, music. OH My Goodness these kids where so precious. I love this class in particular. They are a very obedient class but they are also really relaxed and fun to be around, they have a great sense of humor and get all my jokes! They are very genki (a word the Japanese use a lot, there is no good English equivalent, but it kind of means lively or spirited) Anyway I love this class. They sang all there little Japanese songs beautifully. One about Mickey mouse (set to the tune of the Mickey Mouse club theme song!!) One called Zoou San or Mr. Elephant, that one was my favorite, one about a snail, one about a flower and one about shaking hands. During the last song I almost lost it though. I really almost cried when they sang "I believe in myself" It was in Japanese but the chorus was in English and the children had learned how to sign the words in sign language. It sounds really cheesy, but they were so cute!! It makes total sense that the Japanese love karaoke, they spend most of their childhood singing. The kids must have music class 4 times a week!

They were also playing these piano horns (they were weird; don't think I could have figured it out!)

As far as an update; I have just been working during the week and then going into Tokyo on the weekends. Going out in the city shopping and sightseeing with my friends and all that. I got a cold this week and yes, YES, I wore the mask. HAAHHAHAHA I did. I felt like such a jerk the first day I was sick, not wearing a mask and spreading my sickness all around, so the next day I donned the mask. It was weird, they are very hot. But definitely a must. I need to take a pic of me in it! It was a cute mask too, had to be!!! On it was a picture of a donut and a candy bar who are friends. HAHHAAHHAHA

The kids were so sweet about it too. They kept coming up to me and asking if I had a cold "Kaze?" One little 2^nd grader ask "Do you have a cold?" Me: Yes" him: "Is majori sense OK?"

Well I am off to bed, going into Tokyo tomorrow to meet up with friends, I hope we do karaoke!

Oyasuminasai

Marjorie