I know it's been a while since I've written my last missive, almost 2 weeks I think… Anyway, this week at school is exam week, so I have to be here for the regular amount of time, but I'm not teaching any classes. I will be helping the English teachers make listening tests and such, and may help with some grading, but that's about it. So, I decided to bring my laptop to school today and spend some of my "free time" writing to you all.
Two weekends ago, we had bunkasai or culture festival. At my school this consisted of two parts: the first day took place at school and showcased the class projects and many of the performances. The second part took place in downtown Sasebo at the アルカス (Arukasu), which is a big music/performance hall. Think of it as a waaaay scaled down version of the Kennedy Center. Both days the public could come watch, but the second day especially was for everyone to come see. That day was one where everyone performed. It was great. I guess I should describe both days in a little more detail now that I've laid the foundation. On the first day, there were peformances in one of the gyms (we have 2) going on most of the day. I saw some koto students perform a couple of songs, the chorus, a Cinderella play, and a couple of dance performances. I have a bunch of this on video, and will put this up for you all to see on my blog, as soon as I think of a name.
Meanwhile, in the other gym was a bazaar set up by parents and townspeople selling anything from food, pottery, and linens, to towels and knit goods. I bought some food and a little knit thing that you're supposed to use to scrub your plates in the shape of a smiling eggplant. Too kawaii to use. On our school campus we also have a traditional building which is used by the students in the tea ceremony club. During culture festival, "masters" of the tea ceremony dressed up in kimonos and performed the tea ceremony throughout the day for interested parties. All of the gumi or class sections contributed in some way to bunkasai. Some did a dance performance or play as I mentioned before, and others did projects in their classrooms. Once class made stained glass windows with colored cellophane and construction paper, another used photos of the class' faces to make a collage of their teacher's face (way cool), another turned the classroom into the solar system with everything built to scale (o.O), and so forth. The students came up with some very interesting ideas. Also, the home ec students spent the week before the festival cooking up a storm so they could make and sell food during the festival. There were also food booths by some local groups and the Japanese version of the Red Cross (I can't remember what they are called) had a truck to do a blood drive. Unlike in the US, everyone here knows their bloodtype, so they put out signs saying which types they need.
That night (Friday) I decided to spend the weekend at Thomas' apartment, even though he had the duty all day Saturday, because the Arukasu is just a 3 min walk from his apartment and I didn't want to have to worry about getting the bus on time in the morning. And, Saturday night after the culture festival was over, I was going to have my official welcome enkai (party, but one involving colleagues) in downtown Sasebo. So, Saturday morning I went to the Arukasu. In front of the building there is a large square-like area. As the students arrived, they were instructed to sit in lines by year, then class, then number. For example, Ura-sensei is in charge of class 1-1, so the students from 1-1-1 to 1-1-41 would sit in front of her. Next to Ura-sensei would be Higa-sensei the 1-2 teacher. Students 1-2-1 to 1-2-40 would sit in front of him, and so on until the entire school of 800 some odd students and 70 teachers and staff were crowding this little square. We then marched everyone inside. Performances that day included some of the ones from the day before like the chorus and koto, but also had new ones like the baton twirling club, a taiko group (students from the nearby disabled school. They were really good!), and the brass band club. The brass band club was amazing. They prepared a few pieces selected by the music teacher, but also had a few they chose on their own. The first piece they played was one they selected and was a medley of Disney songs. All the students in the band wore some sort of had or headband, most Disney themed, and the student who was conducting dressed up in a Minnie costume. The students were really good, especially considering that music is only an afterschool activity. After a few pieces conducted by the music teacher, the students closed their concert with the theme song from My Neighbor Totoro, a very popular anime. I sang this theme song back in sophmore year of college at the yuki matsuri concert at Wellesley. This time the student conductor dressed up as one of the characters, a big gray ball-like monster. I've not seen the series, so can't describe it/him any better than that. There are a bunch of other events I'm forgetting to tell you about, but I think you get the idea.
Oh, I should tell you about a little incident that happened that day. So, back before Sports Day, I ordered and paid for bento for Sports Day and Culture Festival. On Friday, the office lady, Nakao-san, came up to me and asked if I really wanted to order bento that day. I asked what the other teachers were doing and she said eating food from the stalls. I said I would do the same and cancelled the bento. I ended up not eating lunch that day because by the time I go to the stalls at 1230, they were out of food. Anywho, that entire conversation was in Japanese, so I thought that's what she said. Turned out I was kind of wrong… So, on Saturday, I went with the other teachers at lunch to pick up the bento. I get in line and one of the other office ladies hands me a box. Nakao-san has the list and says "Oh Eleanor-sensei, you cancelled your bento." So she and the English teachers have a little back and forth conversation. I finally said that it was alright and that I would just walk a block down the street to the local Hotto Motto and order a bento. Hotto Motto is the place the school orders bento from everyday, so I was pretty familiar with it. I couldn't help but cry a little bit as I walked there. It was one of those days where all of the little frustrations I experience everyday in terms of communication just culminated into a major incident. I got my bento and managed to be ok by the time I got back to the Arukasu. I was in a bit of a bad mood until the brass band played after lunch. That gave me a huge lift.
After the culture festival was over I walked back to Thomas' house to rest up a bit before going out again for the enkai. The enkai was held in a Chinese restaurant in one of the reception rooms. Some of the teachers has assigned seats and other seats were assigned to a number. If you name wasn't written down when you walked in, then you picked a number from the kitty and sat in the designated place. I was seated at the head table as the enkai was to celebrate sports day and culture festival as well as to welcome me. Also at the head table was the music teacher representing culture festival, a P.E. teacher representing sports day, the head of the PTA, the head of the alumni association, the principal, and a guy I never got a chance to meet. When I arrived, they realized that they had neglected to put any of the English teachers at my table, so there was a quick reshuffle to seat my supervisor next to me. There were a couple of speeches and the kampai and then I gave a speech in Japanese along with the music teacher and pe teacher. Then the eating and drinking began. In Japan, when you're out drinking, you never pour your own glass, someone always pours for you. Therefore, if you're thirsty, all you have to do is top up someone else's glass and bingo! you're set. They also use this technique as an excuse to go over and talk to someone they don't know, in this case, me. I started out with a glass of beer (4oz glass) but quickly switched to oolong tea. Also, if you haven't drained your glass at all, but someone still wants to pour, then you both just go through the motions. They pretend to pour for you, but nothing comes out, and you pretend to sip without actually drinking anything.
The enkai was great fun. I got to meet and talk with a lot of teachers I might not have otherwise at school. One of the 2nd year Japanese teachers travels a lot so we talked about Egypt, Greece, and Istanbul. I also spoke with one of the soccer coaches. He was surprised to hear that girls play soccer in the US at school, because here it is a boy's sport. Also, there is no such thing as Title IX here, there are twice as many sports for boys as there are for girls. The party started at 1830, and ended at 2130. Usually there would a be a second, third, or fourth enkai, but thankfully there wasn't that night. I was walking back to my apartment, when I noticed I had a call from Connie, one of Thomas' fellow JOs. She and a few others were going to a karaoke bar where the entire bar sings and people weren't in booths. I joined here and about 10 others. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it so much that I convinced Thomas the next day that we really ought to host a dinner party. As, you know, that turned out really well.
From the Saturday of my enkai and culture festival to the following 2 weekends was a lot of party time. Tuesday, Thomas and I went over to the house of one of the JOs from the Tortuga who came to our dinner party. He made wings, creamed corn and rice. We then went downtown to a restaurant where Rich, was celebrating his 25th birthday. We sat down and had a few drinks. Rich's friends had arranged for a cake, so we tucked into that. After that came out, the restaurant brought out a cake once they learned three of us were celebrating our birthdays. It was an awesome time.
On Wednesday, I had dinner with Hayashi-sensei. Hayashi-sensei is the mother of one of the second year students at my school. She runs one of the Kumon centers nearby and teaches English and Japanese there. She is the one who asked me take part in the English Immersion camp. After she picked me up she took me to her house, the bottom floor of which is the center and the top part is their quarters. After her son Kyosuke arrived home from soccer practice we went to their favorite Japanese restaurant. Kyosuke and I both like tempura so had the tempura plates while Hayashi-sensei had the sashimi. This restaurant was pretty cool because as soon as you walk in, there is a pool set in the floor with all of the fish swimming around as well as several large tanks with the lobster, crab, and other shellfish. When they eat miso soup, they drink directly from the bowl, they don't really use spoons.
Thursday night I went with Thomas and some of his friends to Mongolian Barbeque on the base. They then left the next day. They had a two day extension because no one was sure which way the typhoon would go. Thankfully it bypassed Kyushu all together and followed the east coast of Shikoku and Honshu.
Carmen and Lauren arrived midday Saturday. I picked them up and took them to the local burger place and introduced them to the burger lady. After napping for a bit, we got ready to go downtown for dinner and karaoke. Everytime any one of us has made a trip to visit another, the trip has always had a name and a theme of some sort. Because it was my birthday, we had an 80s them. I wore a black top, miniskirt, aqua colored tights, and purple leg warmers with my black Steve Madden pumps to go with the theme. Carmen was wearing yellow tights and Lauren wore purple leggings. We all wore our hair the same way too. We got lots of looks, it was really funny. After eating dinner at an udon restaurant we met a bunch of my friends at karaoke place. We had our booth for two hours in an all you can eat and drink extravaganza. I've not had that much fun in a while. We sang current songs as well as old favorites like the Backstreet Boy's "I want it that way." Most of my friends left for home after karaoke, but Carmen, Lauren, and I, as well as the two Trinis went to an arcade nearby to play the taiko drum game as well as go to the photo booth. Carmen had never played before, but was really good. I like playing the game, but stink most of the time. After that we went to a bar/club called Rogiq (logic), but nothing was going on so we left. We then decided to go bowling. Thankfully, the bowling place is open late on Saturdays, as it was almost midnight by this point. We played two games, and I finally broke 100 with a score of 101. Lauren bowled a turkey which is three strikes in a row. On our way out, we played some more taiko, and Carmen really impressed some of the other Japanese guys playing, because she got a high score and got to enter her name in.Sunday we spent walking around Sasebo and doing a little shopping. I had to go to school Monday, but had Tuesday off because of the Autumnal Equinox. On Tuesday we went to another burger joint for a farewell lunch because Sasebo is know for it's hamburgers, before I saw Lauren and Carmen to the bus.
For JET, each prefecture of ALTs (assistant language teachers, ie me) and CIRs (coordinator for international relations) is divided into blocks by city area. So, in Nagasaki, the big cities (and therefore blocks) are Sasebo, Isahaya, Nagasaki, Shimbara, and then there is one for the Goto Islands. On Thursday, there was a Sasebo block dinner at an Indian restaurant in downtown, which was great, because I've only really met the first year ALTs in the area.
Earlier on Thursday at school was had something called Jogging time. For Jogging time, all of the students most of the teachers headed out to the track in their sports gear to run for 15 min. I swear we ran for more than 15 minutes, it felt like agony. Thankfully I ran the whole time, even tho I wa really slow at some points. I hope this really encouraged the students… My legs were really really sore until Sunday morning even though I tried hot and cold remedies and ibuprofen. I guess with all of the activity of the last 3-4 weeks it's no wonder that on Friday night when I started to relax that I came down with whatever flu or bug has been making it's rounds. I rested all day Saturday and Sunday, but had to come to school today. Thankfully, I'm feeling much better, I just hope I can kick this without having to go to the doctor. However, I'll take it a little bit at a time and reevaluate as I go along.
This weekend I will have a meeting with Hayashi-sensei concerning camp the following weekend. Then an off weekend, Halloween, and then a trip out to Miyazaki prefecture to visit Carmen and Lauren. Whoo! So busy!
