The Villanuevas Visit Japan - Part I

This blog outlines my fam's first few days in Japan... (December 2008)

After a good night’s rest, I finally got the call. Dad was on a pay phone, saying that the Villanueva trio was getting the shinkansen into Koriyama on December 23. It was the morning after their expected arrival, but at least they had made it. The spent their first night in Japan in what Dad called a “cheap” hotel. That is, they stayed in the Narita Airport; their flight delays caused them to miss the last shink up to my prefecture.

My family spent their holidays in Japan with me from Dec. 23 to Jan. 5. I told everyone how my parents booked their flights online when they heard I got a spot on the JET Programme. The kicker? I still hadn’t accepted the position as an ALT, because I was waiting to hear the exact location of my placement. (When I heard that I was posted in Motomiya, Fukushima… it still took me a few weeks to send in my acceptance papers).

Anyways, my parents and brother left home on a very wintry morning as Canada faced “Snowmageddon.” All this snow caused their flights to be ridiculously delayed. I expected them on a Monday afternoon, but they arrived here the next day.
We all crammed into my little 1DKL, so it was a very tight squeeze but it worked. Basically, I have my bedroom that measures six tatami-mats; a living room of similar size; the kitchen/foyer; the bathroom; the unit bath/sink. They’ve heard me whine endlessly about the lack of heating in my apartment. When they slept over the first night, they immediately understood what I meant. I think I fed them curry and rice (a staple in any Japanese diet), and then we bought some snacks from the kombini. I think that’s when Dad first discovered the alcohol aisle in a convenience store. (We don’t have that back home).

December 24 – School Life

On their first full day in Fukushima-ken, I forced them to get up bright and early. We piled into Haruto Onegaishimasu (my kei-car), and made the one-minute drive to my base school: Motomiya Nichu.
First, I had my family slip on the fugly light brown guest slippers. I was surprised to see that many of my students were still weaving through the hallways, seeing as how winter holidays officially started the day before. The ichi-nensei kids whispered amongst each other, then would run up to me and say “HERRO!” They were constantly glancing at my family, so I was more than happy to introduce them.

We then headed up to the teacher’s room to say a quick hello. Kocho-sensei (Principal) invited us to his office for some green tea. Kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) and Mariko-sensei (my JTE – Japanese Teacher of English) joined us as well. We spoke in broken Japanese and English, with Mariko-sensei thankfully translating everything. Kocho-sensei mentioned that my Japanese has slightly improved! I remember my first day of school with him – we sat in mad awkward silence before he introduced me to the rest of the staff room.

I handed out Christmas cards and chocolates to the staff, and mentioned their omiyage (gifts) from Canada was being delivered later. I think that my family was awestruck by the sheer politeness of the teachers. When my family first came into the room, everyone stood up and started bowing.

We went for a quick walk throughout the school. As usual, it was really cold because the place isn’t heated. (We use old school kerosene heaters when class is in session). The gym was filled with kids doing their club activities (table tennis and basketball), so we dropped by to say hello. Ernest and I took a couple photos with the kids – it was pretty funny to have dozens and dozens of them swarm us.

As we were heading to my car, we accidentally interrupted the ongoing soccer practice. My other JTE (Sawafuji-sensei) happens to be the coach, so he stopped the drills and asked the boys to run over to us. Rei is one of my favourite ni-nensei boys – and he said in perfect English: “Good morning! Welcome to Motomiya Nichu!” They all did their bows; it was super kawaii. I wanted them to demonstrate their English skills, so we did morning greetings. Ya, I’m jokes. “Good morning, everybody! Good morning, Ms. Gemma! How are you today? I’m fine, thanks. And you? I’m fine, thank you.” So jokes.

We visited Iwane Elementary School for a few minutes as well. Kyoto-sensei let us go up to the roof of the school, where we got a pretty nice view of Motomiya. Only Ernest and I made a quick appearance at Gohyakugawa Elementary School, as Mom and Dad waited back at my apartment for the rest of their luggage to be delivered.

I think this was the first meal we bought from my favorite local burger joint – Mos Burger. (Ernest developed a strong liking to MOS. It is delish). And obviously, we saw Shirley and Brian drive past us while yelling from outside their windows. (Us three regularly eat at Mos Burger, so it was only fitting that we see them there).

We spent Christmas Eve dinner at Asahi Beer Factory with good friends (B., Shirls, Dan-kun) and good food. This was the first time my family experienced the wonders of nomihoudai /tabehodai(two hours of unlimited drinks and food). It was then followed by an evening of karaoke in Koriyama. I thought it was pretty funny that my supervisor had the beer garden on his cell phone’s speed dial; he made the reservations for us with ease. Nomihoudai and karaoke for Christmas Eve = you know you’re in Japan…

Let's enjoy English

I had dozens of students compliment me today.
"Hi, Gemma-sensei. You are the most wonderful in the universe!"
"You are more interesting than I am!"
"You are the most beautiful in Japan."

Granted, it was a speaking activity during English class. The students were busy reading prompts off their worksheets, in an effort to practice comparatives and superlatives once again. I made a fourteen-year-old boy giggle when I said, "Wow! You are taller than me." Precious.

I also made an effort to hang out with my san-nensei (third-graders) again. I haven't really had a proper class with them since late December, so I don't feel a great connection with them. It's a shame, because they're graduating in mid-March. I've heard them enthusiastically practice their farewell song, which reminded me how school life has such a major impact on their notion of self. They've spent their weekdays and weekends studying and playing at school; it's no wonder that they'll be crushed when they leave behind old teachers and friends.

At lunch, I ended up chatting with some of the third-grade boys. I found out what high schools they're hoping to attend, and other random stuff. I also learned that while they can't communicate freely in English, they have done a solid job at looking up dirty words. I was also reminded of a Sean Connery skit from Saturday Night Live, as these kids tried to talk with me. No, the pen is larger. Urgh.

I've got so much left to say right now,

but I'm slightly behind schedule with my blogging. I definitely want to share with you some of the highlights from two recent trips. They include the times I've spent with my family in Japan over Christmas and New Year's, plus the five-day Hokkaido holiday with the FuJETs. Those tales will come soon.

But for now, I want to jot down some touching moments in my life:

- I was at the local dollar store, and ran into one of my second-graders from Nichu. He bowed when he paid for his ice cream, and then he bowed as he said "Shee you!!" to me. For some reason, I thought it was simply darling when he carefully handed over his exact change to buy two cups of ice cream. I saw him run to the covered area of the shopping mall, and he split it with his friend.

- I heard a knock the other day. My neighbour and her youngest baby were bundled up at my door. She nervously smiled, and read an English message for me. She then handed the yellow slip of paper. She obviously used an Internet translation site, but it truly touched me that she went through some effort to communicate with me. She then handed me some "omiyage" - a variety of cakes from Sendai. Yummy! Little Shiogo was bundled up in his navy blue winter jacket - he stood there peering up at me. Seriously, he's a cute baby. He's only a year and two months old! Kawaii ne!

- I had to get my oil changed the other day. (I totally got ripped off, but that's my fault for not understanding Japanese. I kept agreeing to whatever Toshiki the gas attendant told me). While waiting in the garage, I was writing a to-do list in English. One of the ol' Japanese grandpas kept staring at my scrawl with some interest. I noticed he was wearing a shirt with some Engrish on it; and he just so happened to have the word "Canadian" embroidered on his green sweater. I used that as an ice breaker, and explained in Japanese that I am indeed Canadian. He then started asking me all these questions in Japanese. Unfortunately, I really couldn't understand a word he was saying. I think he has a Fukushima-ken accent. It was mad heavy.

- My kids at elementary school always brighten my day. Last time, two of the boys said "I love you very much-ey!" I melted. And my maniacal second-graders calmed down for five minutes when I offered to autograph their karuta cards.

Slow times at Nichu

(Note: This will be a lengthy post, because I had a total of zero classes today. The students were busy writing standardized tests. So, I spent the bulk of my day sitting at my desk while sipping coffee. Mahja - I'll sit down and write a proper blog of the fam's visit, soon! I have notes lying around somewhere of our itinerary).

Every week, my English team-teaching time table is neatly placed at the bottom left-hand corner of my desk. M-sensei invites me to join certain classes with the stroke of a yellow highlighter. At the bottom of each day's lineup, I’m also assigned to eat lunch with a different homeroom.

I usually have at least 17-20 classes per week. What does that mean? In 50-minute spots, I accompany my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) to their classes. I usually do the greetings: “Good morning, everybody! Good morning, Gemma-sensei. How are you today? I’m fine, thank you. And you? I’m fine, thanks. You may sit down.” With M-sensei, I usually spent the rest of the class just standing and looking pretty. Sometimes, I get to help distribute papers. At times, I get to do some model readings – that is, “Please repeat after me.” My forte is playing the Criss-Cross game – it’s the consistent responsibility of mine at the start of her classes.

With my other JTE, I do the opening and closing greetings as well. I’m also given the opportunity to do model readings every class. Plus, I get to choose the students who go up to the board. I used to be really good at names, so I could call on students with ease. There’s 278 kids at Nichu, so I was pretty proud of myself that I memorized 93.5% of their names in my first couple of months here.

This week, I was looking at one kid and kept calling him “Masahiko.” He didn’t reply, so I tried “Abe-kun!” Fortunately, that’s his last name. But the students giggled, because I don’t usually use the “-kun” suffix. (Japanese add “-kun” for boys’ names and “-chan” for girls’ names).

Anyways, the school year is coming to a close. The third-years are busy with high school interviews and entrance exams. Their graduation is scheduled for mid-March. With such hectic endeavours, that means the lone ALT doesn’t get to be the foreign mascot in various classes. So, I’ve had a lot of time to think at my desk in the staff room.

I've focused on the frustrations that I’ve faced here. People don’t tell me about changes to the school schedule – but I expected that. Everyone’s really nice to me in the teacher’s room, but I haven’t developed any bonds because I don’t speak Japanese.

I’ve also realized that appearances trump reality here. I have an “ALT test” tomorrow. My board of education bosses are coming to observe my teaching skills. I am NEVER the lead teacher, so this will be interesting when I get to run the entire 1-3 class tomorrow. We had a “practice” run teaching my 1-4 class yesterday. My JTEs said that the BoE isn’t really evaluating me, but it’s mostly to keep up appearances and make sure I’m sort of doing a job. (They invest a lot of money into ALTs).

But with all this boredom, little nuggets of greatness have helped enhance my school experience. My other JTE has realized that I can bang out decent worksheets in good time. I noticed that he’s letting me contribute with worksheets and original skits.

I’m also enjoying my time with the kids. The second-year girls are the most talkative. They like telling me about their secret boyfriends and crushes. It’s fun when I’m able to guess exactly who is it that they like. “What homeroom? What club activity does he play after school? How tall is he?.... OH!!! I know who it is.” With their limited English abilities, their questions are pretty funny. “What is your blood type?” (Apparently, all Japanese girls know theirs). “Do you love ~~-sensei? Do you love ~~-sensei? Do you love Mogi-kun?” Oh, silly girls.

They’re also super helpful. When I don’t know the schedule, I ask them. And I had one of the girls read out some class lists for me, and translate the kanji. Good times. Now, I know the names of all third-year students, because little Akane went through dozens of names with me.