Second Day of School 7 April

The view from the ichinensei's classroom.

Today was a long, long day. I woke up tired, and spent the rest of the day so, mainly because I didn’t have a lot to do until lunchtime.
I was at my little mountain school (from here on out, LMS) today, and maybe it’s just the honeymoon period, but I love that little school. The faculty is awesome – they have been so welcoming to me, some trying to speak English with me, I’ve gotten my first “Ohashi ga jouzu desu ne?” (You are good at using chopsticks, aren’t you?), but that’s fine because they were speaking to me when they didn’t have to.

Today I spent the morning between my desk and hanging out in the back of a couple homeroom classes, the ichinensei (1st years - like 7th grade) and the ninenseis (2nd years - like 8th grade). My JTE is the HRT (homeroom teacher) for the ichinensei. It was kind of boring because they were just going over rules and setting up duties for everyone during the day, same for the ninensei I think.
I got to miss out on another ceremony this morning – because I was having tea in the teacher’s kitchen with H-san, and I didn’t realize everyone had left. Oh darn, they didn’t tell me to go to the freezing-cold taikukan (gym) for an hour! H-san mentioned it to me, but then said “Samui desu” and I took her ok to skip it. After the meeting, we gathered in the kitchen to sing “Happy Basday” to Kouchou-sensei (Principal), and later enjoyed the oishii (delicious) cakes they had gotten. And I mean Oishii!



I was assigned to have lunch with the ichinensei, and I sat next to the Japanese version of Cheski. (wink wink, EP!) In face and character! Made me a little smile, put a chuckle in my oven. I’ve also found the Japanese edition of Alex F. (fourth period). Lunch is served by the students, brought in on carts, set up and served by the kids int their classroom. In our case, the sannensei (3rd years - like 9th grade) brought it in and I believe some of the ichinensei were helping to distribute – hard to tell since they were all wearing masks! I noticed that the kids, usually in their blue jumpers, had changed into their black uniforms for lunch. Apparently they’re for coming, lunching and going, and the jumpers are in the middle. Each student also had their own handkerchief thing for a placemat (that’s what I got when I bought Enoden cookies! Ah, the lightbulb!). The kids are supposed to finish all of their lunch, no leftovers, and I have to say it was a feat even for me (granted, I’d had a piece of Kouchou-sensei’s birthday cake shortly before…). Cheski-kun and I had to choke our bread and jam down as they were pulling the plates out from under us, because the bell had rung for teeth-brushing time. That’s right. At each of their places, the kids had a cup and a toothbrush. As they finished eating, out came the toothbrushes, sans paste, and some serious brushing commenced. Even the senseis were brushing! I personally had left mine downstairs (knowing that it was common practice to brush, but unfamiliar with the table-brushing), so I brushed in the bathroom.

After lunch I went back downstairs for a bit, then back up for soji, cleaning time. In Japan they do not hire custodians to clean the schools – the kids do it. Classrooms, hallways, bathrooms, hall sink, everything. Sweeping, dustmop and push-a-cloth-along-the-floor-with-your-hands (ala Spirited Away - I tried it myself and it's really hard!), vacuuming, window-washing, dusting, board-cleaning, chalk tray, cleaning the erasers with a special contraption, etc., etc. And the kids do it no complaining. And they do a good job, too! Imagine American kids did that? Perhaps there’d be less garbage on the floor if they knew they had to eventually pick it up themselves!

After soji, and having left the laminator on downstairs (I left it heating up, expecting to return after soji), I stayed in the room while A-sensei (my JTE) went over some other things with the kids. In the meantime, the sannensei showed up with a keyboard to help us learn the school hymn (alma mater? What the heck is it called?) The same two girls from yesterday’s ceremony played and conducted, and the senseis put the rest of the sannensei amongst us. I was sitting in the empty chair next to Cheski-kun (poor soul, that’s where I’ll be putting myself from now on!) so I tried to “sing” along. Fortunately the lyrics were written in hiragana.

After the song, more going over stuff, pretty boring. But it was cool seeing how the class went all day. I’m back there on Tuesday, so I’m happy. I’m really pleased that that will be my main school – meaning I’ll see them I think 62 times over the next year. And there are only 3 classes, so I don’t have to worry about being worked too hard – lots of schmooze-time!

At the end of the day we saw the kids off at the door, hastily slipping on their sneakers, some smushing them on.

We went back to the staff room and I tried again to laminate, left the darn thing on to heat up while getting distracted by something else, said my “Osaki ni shitsurei shimasu” (something like, sorry to be leaving before you) at around 5, walked out and halfway home remembered the laminator with my telltale picture sitting next to it, ready for laminating. I guess I’ll get the blame for that one! I feel so bad!

Monday I’m at a different JHS, I was shown where it is, but quickly on Wednesday. Tomorrow I have to figure out how to get there on my own. I couldn’t remember today. And try to get to the ELE I’m at on Wednesday.. And plan for that day! Ack! I’m so nervous about elementary school!