So I am very behind on updates, a whole weeks worth!
I guess I should start where I left off… only I don’t really remember when that way lol. But last Saturday our host sister Maki, or otherwise known as onesan, took us to Tachikawa for a little bit of shopping. Which is only 20minutes in the oppisite direction on our train line, which is closer than Shinjuku which is about 40minutes. It was cool to get to see another area and it was nice to discover somewhere closer to go go explore and shop at than Shinjuku. Plus it was a little bit less crowded, though I’m pretty positive that we were the only foreigners there. Maggie decided she wanted to cook dinner that night so we bought ingredients for her to make Daal, which is this amazing Middle-Eastern/Indian dish that I so need to learn how to make because it was freaking delicious!
Sunday Maggie and I went and met up with some other CIEE students and a couple Sophia students (Erika and Tomo) we had met through the Circle/Club presentations in Harajuku for lunch and shopping. This was my first experience having an “Ebi-burger” (shrimp burger), since we had to eat at a fast food place since everywhere was crowded being Sunday and all, and it actually wasn’t bad. We ended up going to the Meiji Shinto Shrine because it was so close by and we all had really wanted to go ever since we had the scavenger hunt. I will upload the pictures I took from my keitai (cellphone) later. It was a really amazing place that just made you feel so good. I loved the smell there, there are tons of trees and planets and everything is green—it’s just so refreshing! Coming from the crazy busy streets of Harajuku to this quiet peaceful and green shrine was a big contrast. I bought a fortune there and it told me that I need to be like bamboo and branch out (have many experiences) and bend with the wind (struggles).
Monday we had another basic orientation day and were done half way through the day which was nice.
Now we get to Tuesday which is what this blog is really about. My study abroad program CIEE has collaborated with this Elementary school in Kugahara for years now taking there students to interact with the kids of the school and have a shared culture experience. We were paired up beforehand and assigned a classroom for which we were expected to either teach them something about our American culture or play a game using English (since this school is pushing for more English to be taught, and actually by 2015 all Elementary school in Japan will start teaching English. As of right now, they don’t really start English classes until Middle school in most schools in Japan.). My partner was Tom and we got a 6th grade class. I was nervous about this because I remember how sixth grade was, I remember the hormones, and I was planning to just get by on playing red light green light—but that idea definitely went out the door. Tom and I decided on playing a version of pictionary where we would tell them a word in Japanese, they would draw it on the board, and then the class had to guess the thing in English.
When we got to the school we were taken to the library and there were a few classes of kids who went by and saw us there and they got SO EXCITED. They were waving and smiling and yelling hello, it was sooooooo cute! We were then taken to a room with tables and chairs which had our classroom numbers and name tags that the kids made us sitting on top of them. The name tags were so adorable. We then had some time to do some last minute preparations before we went on a tour of the school. We got to observe the kids in their classrooms as they were doing lessons. We even got to peek in on the art, music, and gym classes. The gym class was fun because they were practicing their dance routine for their upcoming school sports festival. These were second graders, so you can just imagine the cuteness overload. I don’t think we could have ever do anything like that at my Elementary school in the states. They were all collectively into it and coordinated, I was so impressed. I could tell that they had really put alot of time into it. But then I was even MORE impressed by what we experienced next. The principal (who had been giving us the tour) took us to the gym for the “welcoming ceremony” we entered the gym through this arch tunnel that the kids had made out of colorful tissue paper and wooden rods. The kids were holding them up so I had to lean down to go through most of it. And while we were all walking through this tunnel, the kids were singing a song for us in Japanese. We were led up onto the stage where chairs had our names on them. The principal made a speech, then the kid representatives made a speech, then a couple of us from our group made a speech. And then the most touching and moving thing happened. All the kids sang “Adel Vice” from the musical Sound of Music for us IN ENGLISH! I was so amazed and awe struck. I’m sure the majority of those kids have never seen the Sound of Music or even know what it is or even what they are singing but that song in particular holds a very special place in my heart because I LOVE that musical. I actually JUST watched it before I came to Japan. So I took that as a sign that this is all destined to be. I seriously had to control myself so I wouldn’t start bawling in the middle of the assembly haha. After the song was done, two kids from each class came and got us row by row and took us to where their classroom was sitting and then we all went back to the classroom for lunch. These two boys came and got Tom and I and they tried so hard with their English it was too cute. Tom and I had a short introduction in Japanese when we got to the classroom before we ate lunch. I told them that I came from Michigan and that I liked Oguri Shun (a famous Actor in Japan) and then all of them were like so amazed and wowed that I knew a Japanese person, they kept asking me about it all day long. Something that I observed that I found very different from our schools in American is that they eat their lunches in the classroom. They get served hot lunch by the kids take turns serving it everyday to each other, so 3 or 4 kids serve us the meal for the day. We lined up and got Jam and butter sandwiches, salad and fruit, milk, and stew (though I didn’t have the stew because it had meat in it. They moved their desks to form a circle and I sat in between two boys (one of which was one of the boys that came to get us in the assembly.) and they asked me if I liked sports, and what kind of music I liked and what bands I listened to, and also what food I liked. The girls who were only a few desks down kept asking me about Oguri Shun, and then when I said I like Arashi (a Johnny’s band) they asked me if I liked other Johnny’s bands. Then they asked me if I liked Dragonball and I said that I knew of it and had seen some of it but that I like Sailor Moon better and then this one girl got SO EXCITED by this fact and did the Sailor Moon hand movement and I was so amused. After lunch we went outside for recess and I was basically kidnapped by this group of boys who decided that I was going to play tag with them and I was like “ehhhhh~ I’m 23 guys there is no way I can keep up with you” but they were like its ok you just have to run, and I was like that’s the whole point I hate the running part haha. But it was fun, besight almost dying from trying to outrun these kids. After recess we help the kids clean the classroom. This also was a difference that I noticed from American schools. All these little differences are geared towards creating a group harmony and atmosphere since the Japanese society is SO VERY focused on the idea of group v.s. individual. Then we sat down while the kids each did their presentations that they prepared for us. We also had a volenteer parent that knew some English there to translate for us when we didn’t understand. They decided to teach us about Japanese culture and then first group focused on Japanese calligraphy, then they showed Tom and I how to write the Kanji for Tomodachi (friend). The next group talked about games, and showed us this wooden ball balance toy and juggling. Tom, the jerk, totally outshowed me in juggling. He got up there and did it one handed and I was like “DUDE you could have let me go first since you are such and expert. Way to make me look bad.” But we both laughed about it. Then they taught us about Kimonos and dressed up in Yukata (which are the lighter summer version) The obi (middle sash that they use to tie and hold the yukata on) was SO TIGHT and I was so hot because we were wearing them over our clothes, but it was cool to get to experience wearing one. Then we played a Japanese History board game that the kids made where we were split up into teams and rolled the dice and everytime we landed somewhere we learned a fact about Japan’s history (like for example, Perry landing, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, the Olympics, Etc.) By the time all of that was done and it was our turn to present we only had like ten minutes to play our game, which was good because I don’t think these kids attention spans would have lasted. We said goodbye and thanked them for letting us come to their classroom then the two boys from before took us back to the meeting place. We thanked all the teachers and principal for letting us come for the day and left. While most of time while I was on my own with the kids I was like “oh no~ how do I communicate~ What are they saying~” I felt like I got by alright an that we understood each other fine despite the language barrier.
I would post pictures I took but Japan is very strict about posting pictures of kids faces on the internet so here is a link to the school’s website where they posted some pictures: http://kugahara12.seesaa.net/
I will post about the rest of my week either later tonight or tomorrow.
