Thurs. Sept. 25 – They’re playing basketball…

On Thursday, I showed up at 6:30 a.m. to make sure I scooped up a seat on the basketball bus. I was sick and tired, but noticed that the little student-athletes were up and ‘em in the gym. They were doing their warm-ups and drills in our school gym – without complaint! Their coach (one of my fave teachers here!) asked the kids to greet me with a bow, and they made me feel really welcome at their games.

The games were held in a really big auditorium, with seating up in the balconies on the second floor. When we first got there, some of the other schools were doing their drills. My kids had to go to the front of the gym, and sing their school song as requested by their coach. It was so cute! I started learning my students' names - it's tough trying to remember all 279 of them, but I think I've almost got it! One thing to note: the rookies call add the word "-senpai" when they talk about their older counterparts. It's a sign of mad respect, which I think is kind of cool.

I stood up and cheered for the kids. Some of their mothers brought snacks along, and kept feeding me. And when they found out that I was the new ALT, lots of bowing happened. Good times. (My boys made it to the finals, but got skooled in the end).

At the end of the tournament, all of the students stood in orderly lines in the gym. There was more bowing, followed by the awards ceremony. After all of these festivities, we had to stay and clean the gym. Students were ripping the tape lines off the gym floor, while others were storing away the hoops or sweeping. I didn’t really know what I could do, so I took photos of my kids.

The ni-nensei boys (second-years) were tickled when I would holler “Mina sama, photo!!” (I’m hoping that means something like “Photo, everybody!” Man, I’m totally screwed for the JLPT).