Culture day

Sorry this is late, but well I’m a bit lazy with posting these things…but anyway, this is from around Nov. 3^rd.

November has finally come. Unfortunately the leaves don’t change much here, but on the bright side it does stay pretty warm. Of course I think I’ve become spoiled by the island because it’s 65 degrees outside and I’m freezing! The first week in November is gradeschool week for me, which means I have gradeschools every day all day, all the time. This can be a blast, but a bit exhausting. For example, in most of my gradeschools I don’t know what classes I’ll be teaching until I get to the school, and even at times they’ll ask me literally right before the class. I’ve gotten used to this (although it still irritates me at times) and have gotten pretty good at working with a class of 30 4^th graders with nothing but a stack of flashcards and a few minutes preparations. Yesterday, I was asked to play with the kindergarteners, which was, to say the least, an experience. Something about asian children makes them too cute to handle, and these kids were pretty cute. I walked in and they all were nervously giggling, a bit afraid that there’s a big gaijin (Foreigner) in the room and a bit excited because, well, there’s a big gaijin in the room. I start out and have all of them introduce themselves to me, while the teachers desperately try to get them to say “My name is…” (Which in Japanese sounds like Ma-yonnai-zu), I’m lucky if the kids just say their name in Japanese. Luckily, I didn’t make any kids cry (I haven’t yet, but I’ve heard stories of other big gaijin’s scaring little kids with…well…their bigness). We progressed to singing songs – heads shoulders knees and toes, followed by the hokey pokey, and then the good ol’ 1-10 numbers song. It was a rousing good time. I’ll try to get some pics of these kids when I can, they’re pretty darn cute.

Anyway, today was the town culture day, so there was no school and instead everyone went and participated in the festival. The festival focused on Japanese culture (obviously) as well as some interesting performances. I participated in a Kendo Kata demonstration in the morning and did a little tea ceremony as well (of course, doing those things means I wasn’t able to get any pictures of me doing them). Below are some pics and a few vids that’ll give you an idea of the festival, hope you enjoy!

Some of my kids doing Karate which is very popular on the Island

 In front of the Tea Ceremony place

Above are some cool paintings drawn by people in my town.