Graduation Ceremony 卒業式

Post XXIII

Today was the 3rd Grade`s graduation ceremony. I was caught off guard and actually did cry. All the students were giving messages to the staff and students in Japanese. As such, I wasn`t expecting to be able to understand what was said to me. But, to my great surprise, my message was delivered in flawless English. Not only that, but the content was absolutely lovely. I am in two minds as to whether or not I want to try to write down what was said here, as I fear that I will report it wrong, and then forever remember the wrong way. Perhaps, I will just keep it in my mind, and even if I forget the words over time, I will never forget the sentiment.

 今日は三年生の卒業式だった。私は泣いた。三年生のみなさんから先生にメッセージをもらいました。学生が私に英語で話した。そしてとてもじょうず英語で話しておどろいた。

In many ways I was blessed to join this school at the time that I did, being able to interact with these students when they were at full maturity. At the same time though, I wish that I could have met them in 1st grade and watched them mature in to the wonderful individuals that they are today. That`s all ifs buts and maybes though, and I am glad I had any time at all with them.

The current second graders, who have seemed to spend a lot of their school life in the shadow of a very energetic, and large class, have also stepped up their energy levels since usurping the title of top of the school. This, of course, is only good news and I look forward to a year of getting to know them in greater depth - they were the class I saw the least out of all of my classes, and being somewhat more quiet than the other classes, it has been more difficult to get to know them.

Spring holiday is now just around the corner, but it is barely a holiday. There is a lot to do in preperation for next year - though I will bail on a lot of it because my family are coming to Japan and I want to spend time with them. Also, as you will have seen, I tried typing some of this post in Japanese too. Reading this through, there is a lot of stuff I feel like I could maybe say in Japanese, but I only tried out the first little chunk. Maybe as a little experiment I will try to write post in both languages from now on, though of course the Japanese will be much simpler condensed versions. Plus, it is likely to be wrong. So if there is any Japanese people reading, or even ALT sempais who have been here for a while, please tell me if I am inadvertently swearing my tits off!

 

Final memories before it`s time to say bye bye

Post XXII

Today, I was really reminded that sometimes it is the most unlikely places that you have an effect on these children`s lives. One of my graduating 3rd graders is rather the quiet type. He doesn`t have a lot of confidence in speaking English. Nonetheless, a while ago he wrote me a letter saying he wanted to get a pokemon card (my reward system intended to get them to write to me). Since then, we had a few small conversations about pokemon, and eventually he wrote enough letters as to get one. I gave him his favourite, Pikachu.

All of the children wrote me a small message to say thank you. Some of the notes were laughably impersonal, but about half of them were personal. This child`s just said: "We are Pokemon friends".

I didn`t think much of it, but then I was told, that in his diary (which all 3rd graders have to keep, in Japanese), he had written about how lucky he was to have met me, and that he is glad to have a pokemon friend. Not only that, but he had written it in English.

Unassuming exchanges with this kid have seemed to resonate with him - perhaps because, being the shy type, the Japanese education system has spent most of its time overlooking him. Of course, I have time for all of my students, but it seems as though having a teacher take an interest in him has had rather a large effect. Memories like this are the best ones to make whilst I am here.

Volley ball and Liquorice

Post XXI

Yesterday I finally had some time to attend one of the school clubs. I decided to go to volleyball, as a few of the students from that club had asked me to attend. This was my first time playing volleyball, and these kids were frikkin pros. Though I was very obviously a beginner, they were really patient with me, and seemed to enjoy teaching me in many respects. My arms are in rather a lot of pain now, I suspect as a result of bad spiking technique. But I`ll be heading there again today, and then leave them be, as they have a competition coming up and I don’t want to distract them too much!!

I have a small demonstration class again today, but it`s only one person who is coming, and I know him personally already so I am not too worried. I will also be giving some of my graduating students some Licquorice Allsorts. It`s not a flavour that they have in Japan, so I am expecting a lot of EEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH s when they try them. A few weeks ago, the male teachers from primary school had some at my house, and they were so confused. They couldn’t decide if it was too sweet, too bitter, or just too weird! So I look forward to their reactions and shall report back……

Still writing, not posting

Post XX

You`d be forgiven for thinking that I had given up on this blog alltogether, but actually I have been writing the entire time, just not publishing anything that I write. Perhaps some would argue that that constitutes giving up on the blog, but hey ho. To me it highlights that writing for `the blog` has more of a therapeutic character to it, regardless of if I publish it or not.

Anyway, here is a post I wrote in the wake of my Winter Holiday. Reading it back, I don`t like it very much, but when do we ever like what we have written when we reflect on it with a sober eye?

So the New Year is in full swing, and I am yet again being terrible at updating my blog. Still no internet at home, and I spent the vast majority of my winter break traveling around Japan. I finally feel like I have done some of the more touristy places in Japan, so can now just kick back and do some exploring at my own pace.

But, having said that, it will be some time before my next holiday, and it`s taking a few days to get back in to the swing of school life (especially school lunch). My new year’s resolution happens to be school related too. I am going to make sure I attend club activities once a week from now on, regardless of how tired I am. Last term I really did savor my Wednesday afternoons, when I could go home at a reasonable time, but I decided that playing sports with the kids is a much better use of my time even if I get a bit (more) tired.

Speaking of being tired, I had some pretty sleepless nights whilst on holiday. In Osaka, for example, we stayed in a dark and dingy `capsule hotel`. It was cheap as chips, but not THAT much cheaper than some of the really nice `guest houses｀ (hostels) we`d been staying in. The accommodation was actually ok, but it was the atmosphere that made it a very uncomfortable stay. The place reeked of despair, radiating from middle aged Japanese salary men who were crying in to a vending machine cup noodle with a fag hanging out of their mouth. It was the kind of atmosphere where even a silent smile was met with a glare, as it threatened to shatter the overbearing misery. The hotel itself, like its clientele, had seen better days. It was old, and the toilets were of the Japanese squatter style, for which I have no time whatsoever. What was booked on a half whim half joke, had backfired on us quite radically. I would have been able to laugh at it if we were only staying one night, but we were staying two, so the joke was on us really.

In some ways, it was a blessing and a curse though. Because the hotel was so dire, we didn’t want to spend any time there at all. So, despite getting home late and drunk, we were still out before 8am the next day. In Kyoto, on the other hand, we wallowed in our hangover till around 10am, which meant we didn`t see everything we wanted to! But, it`s an excuse to go back even if it may be really busy and touristy.

Perhaps the highlight of my holiday, though I use the word `highlight` being fully aware that it may be a distasteful word choice, but for want of a better word it will have to do, was Hiroshima. Hiroshima was possible one of the most distressing places I have ever been in my life. On a par with Auschwitz in terms of soliciting a feeling of boundless despair within myself at my fellow man. An entire city, reduced in an instant to ash and rubble, at the hands of the USA. I won`t go in to all the details, but rather I will mention a few things that I found particularly hallowing. One thing in particular that stuck out is that alongside the plane that dropped the bomb, there were others dropping scientific equipment, and one to film the blast, which highlighted the American`s complete detachment with the human effects of dropping the bomb. It was as if it was any other normal test of the atom bomb, only this time the Japanese were the subjects. What`s more is that, at the time, most of Hiroshima prefecture`s Junior High School students had been mobilised in a demolition effort in Hiroshima city. Meaning, that an entire generation of children where right in the epicenter of the blast. Many of whom, not dying in the initial inferno, suffered skin-melting burns, and were miraculously able to struggle home before succumbing to their injuries the next day, or day after. There is a catalogue of victims, with stories far more hallowing than I can do justice to, alongside school uniforms so burnt one cannot distinguish the melted skin from the fibers of the cloth.

I think that Hiroshima is something that all civilized people should visit. What`s more I think that Americans have an obligation to visit. Because in the wake of one of the single most inhumane things committed by man, America and Japan have taken radically different policies. Japan, the victim, has pursued a policy of non-violent national security, and is now (though, of course, it was not always) a nation committed to peace. America, on the other hand, have continued to have a foreign policy centered around aggressively securing resources from other countries by means of force – with large levels of popular support no less. I think it is all too easy for people to get tied up in to the “us” vs “enemy” dichotomy that is constantly presented and supported by governments and media associations alike. It makes it all too easy for us to distance ourselves from the terrible human consequences of war. Take the “War on Terror” as a modern example. This is a war so vaguely defined that there are no achievable goals that could bring it to an end. It is also so vaguely defined that almost any group that one chooses will serve well as an enemy. This is a remarkably unstable situation for everyone, and could encourage popular support for future genocides by the Allies against, most likely, the Middle East or perhaps China. If governments have already gained support for the “War on Terror”, then all that’s left to do is to convince the public that any given group are “Terrorists”, and people will support killing them.

Of course I am not a proponent of terrorism, and any reader who takes me to be has not picked up on the message beneath my words. Of course, terrorism is a problem, and perhaps on its own a “threat” to the world. But, nonetheless, propagating war, propagating the dichotomy, will only serve to allow for more atrocities in the future. And that, above anything else, is what must be avoided, if we are to take anything from the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Productive days on The Island

Let`s Enjoying School Trips!

Post XIX

 A little while ago I went on the world`s most Japanese school trip. First, we visited a disaster prevention center, where we learned about how to cope with various disasters. There was a bunch of simulator rooms, which were all great fun, and some were actually quite scary (for example the earthquake simulator, which the kids insisted be set to the highest level, of course). 

After that, we went to the traffic flow control center to learn about traffic lights and other such things. It was probably the most boring two hours of my life to date, and the building was so hot that I just wanted to pass out. But, there was one highlight when a security guard crept up to me and whispered: "Hello, where are you from?" I said, the UK. He then said, "Ah. UK traffic lights, same?" to which I told him they weren`t. At which point he thanked me and walked away. I am sure this is not true, but it seemed like he had been waiting for some time for the chance to ask that question to someone. He could have used the internet, but I was glad to put an end to his anticipation. 

 Then we had lunch. This was the highlight of my day for two reasons. First, Japanese mums pull out all the stops to make sure their child has the cutest lunch. Second, every kid has more sweets that I could eat in an entire week, and they were fighting over giving me some! The bento boxes all had really cute food in them, and one mum even made a Kirby out of rice!!

 They were all so cool, and the sweets were awesome too. I was eating things that I hadn`t even seen in Japan yet, so who knows where they find all of these things! 

 After lunch we went to the local landscape garden which is very beautiful. I pretended to push one of the kids (one of the little “jokers”) in the water when he was feeding Koi, and he jumped out of his skin! He looked at me and said “Sensei not funny!!” which just made it even more funny for me. Of course, he saw the funny side, and appreciated that I was pulling pranks on him for a change. Then we had a tea ceremony, and headed home. On the ferry we bumped in to some of the younger kids who had also had their day out. Then began an hour of me being a fair ground attraction. Japanese kids, hyped up on sugar, were jumping all over me, wanting to be carried, spun around, thrown, chased, lifted, dragged and all kinds of other things. It was great fun, but absolutely exhausting.

Kidnapped in Japan

Post XVIII 

So last weekend was rather bizarre. I`ll set the scene. It had been a long week, and I was knackered, so decided I wouldn’t take the ferry to have drinks with my friends. Instead, I would cook a meal, have a beer, and read a book. I kept putting off cooking because I couldn`t be bothered, so I just sat reading and drinking, and all of a sudden it was around 8.30. I thought, I`ll get cooking now or else I`ll eat really late. So there I was, cooking away, and the doorbell goes. Now, the Japanese aren`t ones to disturb you late unless it`s important, so I wondered who it could be. I opened the door and there stood a lady whom I didn`t recognize. She started rambling at me in rapid Japanese. I could understand that she was saying that she was my neighbor. She asked if I had eaten, and I said no, but that I was cooking now. She said, no no its ok, you can eat at the bar. I was in my pajyamas so I insisted that I should change, she replied that I looked fine and that I didn`t need to worry. I just about managed to convince her I should at least turn off my gas, so I nipped inside (and quickly chucked on some trousers) and there I was being dragged out of the house to the only bar on the island. 

 She knew about 10 English words, but nonetheless we could hold a minimal conversation. She insisted she was my Japanese mother, and that I should frequently eat at her house, and so on. She bought me a plethora of drinks, and we played darts, and it was just generally a bizarre evening. 

 On the way home, she “boinked” me on the penis. I can think of a better word to describe it. It was like an exaggerated and comical pat with the palm of her hand, followed by the most childish outcry of laughter you have ever heard from a 60 odd year old woman. I suppose she was curious. It marked the end of an absolutely bizarre kidnapping and night out, that was actually surprisingly fun. After, I couldn’t help but ponder over the “boink” for a little while. I thought to myself, if it was an old Japanese man “boinking” a young girl on her tits, that would be completely inappropriate. Perhaps what she did to me was inappropriate too, but I guess I have got so used to all manners of attempted sexual assaults at school that I have just come to expect it. This is one of the Japan-isms that many foreigners draw the line at – the obsession, between same sexes, to attempt to sexually touch their peers (and teachers). Now, I think I don’t really have a problem with it as there is no sexual intent whatsoever, it is playful. Just like in English schools, we have “bundles” where one boy is piled on top of by all of his peers, the Japanese have “Kancho” where they try to grab your man parts, or sometimes worse…. Also, I have become a ninja at deflecting their attempts, so they rarely succeed. What`s more, my children don`t seem to try to kancho me as often as my friends kids try to kancho them.

 In any case, whether you see it as a playful part of Japanese childhood, or a fundamental flaw in how children are allowed to behave at school, it is still going to happen. I try to just be as little of a kill joy as possible, but I can understand why it can be a source of discomfort for foreigners working in Japan, too.