The Gaijin Diaries: Reloaded: "Sakura, Sakura..." and First Lessons

The title of this post was chosen because sakura be everywhere, yo. In a way, it's kind of nice that the start of the school year coincides with the peak of cherry blossom season ... makes everyone feel better about going back to school, I guess.

This past week since training has been fairly laid-back. After we finished up and each gave our full 25-minute demo lesson to a small group of our peers, we had a nice celebratory farewell dinner -- ahh, back to the days of the expensive group nomihoudai "all-you-can-drink" with a set course meal. Oh well, it was worth it. The next day, we all checked out, turned over any extra luggage to the delivery service, and split off into groups that were going in the same direction. All in all, it was a pretty useful training, full of sage advice and amusing anecdotes. I still freaked out about my first real lessons today, though, because they were for 4th grade and special education 2nd-3rd grades, which have no textbook.

At Hiroshima Station, we met with our ICs, local Japanese people who help us get all settled in to our new lives. My soon-to-be neighbor and I were picked up by a very kindly middle-aged mom in a neon green VW beetle ... very cute, but pretty squished with all our stuff! She helped us get our keys, pay the gas deposit, and go buy things at various stores to start us off in our little one-person Leopalace apartments. She was so helpful and always knew where the best prices would be! On Monday she came back to help us and another new ALT get our foreigner registration cards and health insurance cards at city hall, open JP Post Office bank accounts, and get cell phones. I was very lucky to have corresponded with an ALT from last year who was leaving Japan--he sold me his iPhone so neither of us have to pay the very hefty contract-breach fee (it's a 2-year contract, but we are each staying for only 1). Just a small transfer fee and oh, the fact that I have to pay off the other half of the phone, which is about $300... yeah, they don't give discounts here for starting a new contract. Ouch. So anyway, with the extensive paperwork, that all took about forever and a day, but hey we survived and got some cheap tasty udon (made in front of us!) along the way.

Then I got a cold so I spent the better part of the next several days holed up in my place, though I did go out to explore some places with other ALTs and do karaoke. I also went to the gym at the community center in the park, which is...hrmm...fairly low-tech, shall we say, and doesn't even have ellipticals. It's fine, it's not super-pricey at least...but I did learn that you have to bring your own indoor gym shoes or borrow theirs. I bought some right after because the pair they had was really old and squeaky!

This past weekend there was the Miyoshi City sakura matsuri (cherry blossom festival) right in my neighborhood, at a park on a nearby hill called Ozekiyama. There was a pre-festival the night before, but it was dreadfully cold and rainy, so me and another guy left after less than 2 hours, but we got to see some real-time sand art and some traditional kagura dancing with live music and eat tasty festival food! I tried fried shark on a stick just to be adventurous. (Shark is a local specialty in Miyoshi because it would last those long treks up into this mountainous region. And here they call it ワニ, wani, which means alligator...huh?) The next day was more about the food and drinks because the weather sucked again, and it even started to hail at one point despite being sunny! Can someone explain this weather please? Yeesh. Then some of us went back to my place and played a bilingual Apples to Apples with English and Japanese on the cards! That made for an interesting time for sure.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for...my first day of work! I didn't actually teach anything, ironically. It was at my biggest school of about 511 students, which I go to on Mondays and Wednesdays. They had an "inauguration ceremony" for the new staff, including me, in which the principal read our names and we introduced ourselves briefly. Everyone was so pleasantly surprised that I did it in Japanese. Also, some girls ran up to me in the hall and greeted me, told me I was the most kawaii sensei (cute teacher) even though they're the cute ones, and asked for many high fives, which I gave freely. Then there was the school entrance ceremony (nyuugakushiki) for the tiny, adorable first graders, whom upperclassmen led by the hand to their seats in front. I almost died every time they earnestly said "Arigatou gozaimasu!" to members of the PTA who all congratulated them on entering school. Then it was back to the teacher's room, where the people at my section of desks (the music teacher and the three 6th grade teachers) decided to take a group photo....but they walked outside with their indoor shoes on! I did the same, despite feeling wrong about it since that goes against everything we've been taught. Apparently some teachers will run out to their cars in indoor shoes, but we're not supposed to follow their example. Oh well, at least it wasn't muddy ...and the picture turned out well!

I helped put away some of the first graders' chairs in their rooms, and then it turned out I had to stay for the full school day plus a little extra--that is, 4:30--which is the usual time, even though I had no lessons. I just used the time to work out a general lesson plan with one of the 6th grade teachers and to go check out the denshi kokuban, or electric blackboard...it's basically a giant touchscreen computer with lesson materials in it! I wish we had that when I was their age... Incidentally, the guy at the desk to my right who showed it to me has the same last name as the guy to my right at my next school...whoa! It's not like it's the most common name in Japan, either. Another oddity: one of his students is named Abe Maria! He started humming the tune of "Ave Maria," I asked why, and he showed me the class list. I guess the Abe family has a sense of humor or a love of music.

Now for the next day (today), at another school of 150 students, with my first actual lessons! I managed to push through on a mostly-empty stomach, since in my rush and slight lateness, I didn't have time to stop and buy an onigiri (filled rice ball), and thus, I had only a fried egg for breakfast and a tiny yogurt, tiny pudding, and smallish banana for lunch. I've been surviving off of cocoa and sugared coffee throughout the day, and even now, the thought of food after work is magical. During lunch, one kid asked in Japanese, "Sensei, aren't you hungry?" I paused and said, "Ah, no, I'm fine!" Bald. Faced. Lie. "...I'll eat more after school." Not a lie.

Anyway, I luckily had the first couple periods to prep, including making a full set of flashcards for 1-20 since the school didn't have any. I beefed up my self-introduction--complete with flashcards, maps, a flag, money, and a bald eagle finger puppet--to last 10 minutes instead of the 5 we had rehearsed, and plunged right in! Thankfully, the cheerful kids were curious and responsive, despite being a little bit rowdy or sassy at times. By the time I had taught two 4th grade classes and eaten lunch with the 5th grade class, I felt like I knew what to expect. But then I had a special needs class with one 2nd and one 3rd grader, and I was nervous because that was new territory...but it turned out fine! I just did things more slowly with more repetition. They (and all the others) are so darn sweet! Sometimes they're a bit fresh, though -- one girl asked if she could call me "Nata-chan." Nope, kid, Natasha-sensei.

Tonight I'm going to a free Japanese lesson at the library with some other ALTs, and the next three days are school days, so let's see how all that goes. I feel a little bit reassured now that I know what it's all like!

Photo time!