Typical day at school

I’ve got 11 schools, that’s quite a bit if you ask me, and there is no way for me to highlight all of them, so I thought I’d run you through a typical day in the life of Josh.

So this is a typical day at one of my schools. The day starts around 8:15 as I head to my school. Today’s school has 30 kids. It’s tucked away off the main road, about a 1 minute walk from a beautiful beach. This being my first day at this school, I get something of a celebrity status (well a celebrity that everyone knows is a celebrity, but doesn’t actually know who they are…but they’re famous and so should be treated as such). As I walk in, all of the kids stare nervously at me, by now I’m used to getting a few stares (or a lot), but for a small gradeschool, the kids were initially pretty calm about me coming. I get invited in to chat with the Principal. He’s obliged to chat with me for at least 10 minutes and while he’s cordial, I’m a bit too nervous to ask him any questions (for fear I might offend with my not so great Japanese) and so just stick to answering what he asks me. The kids from the 5^th and 6^th grade (the ones who have to learn English) come and get me. There are 7 of them and they are excited and nervous for me to be there. Unbeknownst to them, I’m also a bit nervous, seeing as my teacher has yet to give me a lesson plan for the day nor have I met him before. This actually is becoming the typical, coming to a school with no idea what I’m doing or teaching (more on this later). I’ve come to realize that Japan is a go with the flow kind of country (I can dig it). The highlight of the class was question time, because for some reason the students couldn’t figure out the difference between “I like…” and “Do you like…?” so students would raise their hands, look very excited, and then say “I like banana?” and wait for me to answer. Luckily the kids had a good sense of humor and so everyone got a big laugh whenever it happened. Lunchtime was meat as usual (being a vegetarian in Japan is…well..a bit interesting sometimes. I usually can get away with just not eating the meat, but sometimes the kids ask why I don’t eat meat? I’m not sure they would understand in English (let alone my terrible Japanese), so I usually just tell them it is because I really don’t like it and so I don’t eat it. That usually gets a weird stare and I go about my day).

This week is also sports day practice for all the elementary schools (the junior high school sports day was just last Sunday) and so all the kids are practicing very hard to make sure everything is right. Today the kids were working on cheerleading for their team (They are split up into white and red teams and face eachother through various events the day of).  I’m not usually one to think things are very “cute”, but I have to hand it to these kids, they were pretty damn cute. They were suuuper excited about cheering on their team, had prepared songs and dances themselves and all wore little red hats to match. After that we had cleaning time, which, especially at small schools, is my favorite. In Japan, the kids do all the cleaning. In fact, they also serve themselves food, clean up their trays, weed the lawn, vacuum, you name it. Some very small first graders (girls of course) asked me to help to weed outside (pulling grass -  a favorite past-time of the Japanese school system). The highlight of my day was holding a conversation with a first-grader. While not much, sometimes just that little bit helps me gain a bit of confidence in my language ability (even though they are first-graders...it’s ok, I’m lame) seeing as most of the time I just kinda glide along and nod my head to what everyone else is saying around me.  Favorite question of the day – a little girl asks, “Is America bigger than this Island?” as if she knew nothing (which is probably true) about the world outside of the island. I try not laugh as she has a very confused and serious look on her face, she desperately wants to know the answer to this question. So I tell her, straight face as possible – “Yes, yes, America is bigger than this island”, satisfied, she returns to weeding that dreaded grass.

After lunch, I get back in my car and head back to the Board of Education. Fill out some paperwork, study some Japanese/prepare for lessons and then punch out (yes, we still punch time cards here in Japan) for the day around 4:45. Depending on the day, I either have Kendo, Aikido, or study Japanese when I get home. Hit the hay around 11:30 (need to work on getting to sleep earlier), wake up and do it all over again. Hip Hip Hooray! J