Sugoi Gaijin

This is a phrase one needs to get used to when teaching in Japan. You see, a lot of the times, teachers forget that you DON’T speak Japanese and you’re NEW to the school, so they forget to tell you about events that are happening. It all started when I was teaching at my Heart Attack School (the very next day). It didn’t go so bad the second time around, really. I only had 3 classes to teach and they were all in the morning: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd periods. That means I had 4th, Lunch, 5th, and 6th periods off. Half the teachers were also gone that day, because half the school went on a field trip. I just sat at my desk in the teacher’s room, staring into space during 4th period and lunch, but then I got waaaaaaaay too bored (and hungry…still fasting, remember?) so I asked Kocho Sensei if I could leave to go teach at my base school. Yeah, it would have been smarter to just go home, but I’m not a jerk and I’m sure the students could use my help (whether they like it or not!!!). So, I walk on over to the JHS and find that most the students and teachers are in the Gym. I ask the English Teacher what’s up and she’s like,

“Oh, what’re you doing here?”
“I got off early, what’s going on here?”
“Ohhh! I forgot to tell you! By the way…”

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I call one of my elementary schools, that I teach at, the “Heart Attack School”, because I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack every time I go there. It’s always for a different reason though, this time was particulary special though. You see last week, I missed my train and came to school a little bit late. I wasn’t so late that I missed my first class or anything, but I did miss the morning meeting they always have and one teacher even commented, “we were worried you weren’t going to make it!” This was very bad. Punctuality is excruciatingly important in Japan and I had made a major mistake by showing up late. But today, I was going to make it up by finally handing out my Omiyage. Read the rest of this entry »

I have more excerpts from the student’s assignment: A week by week journal of Summer Vacation.

I want to use alien

I have no idea, what the hell this dude was doing during his summer vacation, but the question remains, what did he want to use the alien for? hmmm…..

Wednesday: I am a girl!

Well good for you! I’m so happy! So it happened on wednesday? Mind you, a girl wrote this journal entry. Also note, that I didn’t know who she (or he?) was before Summer vacation; I came in afterwards. More intrigue…

The potato eats like a chestnut

You know, I only wish I could make stuff up–it’s that’s this good.

I stady English very hard, but no thank you.

At least the dude is being polite, if not incoherent.

Yeah, I met a Sumo Wrestler and it was pretty awesome, not going to lie :razz:. Don’t you feel jealous?? Anyways, there’s this Sumo Wrestler that’s from the area, so he decided to visit the schools and talk about his experiences. He was supposed to do some demonstrations on some kids and some unfortunate teachers (me), but sadly, he injured his leg, so he wasn’t about to do any exhibitions :sad:. BUT! We did get to play this game of multiple choice (actually there were only two choices: fist meant choice A and open palm meant choice B) where the winner got to shake hands with the Sumo Wrestler. The questions were on things about him, like what food does he like, A: Meat, or B: Fish; or how long is the rag that the Sumo Wrestlers wear? Ok, now guess who won. That’s right, I did Motha F’er! Actually, out of the entire school, two of us tied.

You’re probly wondering, how the hell did he get all those questions right? Two reasons, one, I had a personal translator (the JTE) and two, I’m just that awesome :lol:! Yes, everyone was confused/jealous of me, but I’m used to that already, because I’m Gaijin! A teacher snapped a shot of me shaking hands with the Sumo Wrestler and, not going to lie, the dude needs a firmer grip if he doesn’t want to send the wrong message, if you know what I mean…

Andrea forced us to go to Hanamaki city. It cost over ¥2,000 in tickets, so about ¥5,000 both ways. We were supposed to be picking apples. We were supposed to go to Yamagata (another prefecture. I live in Miyagi), but for some reason we went to Iwate, to Hanamaki city. From Ishinomaki we went to Kogota, then from there we transfered to another train to Ishinoseki and from there we transfered to another train that went to Hanamaki. There were a lot of train transfers and if you didn’t get this earlier, it was ridiculously expensive. So, we didn’t go apple picking like we originally planned. In fact, when we arrived, the information booth was quite surprised to hear we wanted to go apple picking. Not only was it not quite the season yet, but we were in the comlete wrong area :oops:! There were a lot of onsens though…perhaps we should have gone to one of those…

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So after Karaoke, I had to crash at someone’s apartment and by someone, I meant Annie’s. We forced David to stay over too, he was drunk as hell. It’s awesome when Englishman get drunk, suddenly, they’re not so polite anymore ha ha ha, but I digress. The morning started out normally. I was awoken by my cellphone at around 6:30 AM; we slept at around 3AM, so that gave me roughly 3 and a half hours of sleep. Lovely, isn’t it? Not only that, I woke up Annie and David and boy were they pleased!

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Oh, is there any sweeter call to congregate than the words: Karaoke Nomihokai (Karaoke Drinking Party). So, I wasn’t planning on going out on Friday night, because I was DEAD EXHAUSTED from teaching Elementary school kids and lack of sleep, BUT, someone emailed out, Karaoke Nomihokai and I just had to say yes :grin:. And besides, this would have been my second time out to Ishinomaki, and I could finally experience some night life there! So we started out going to a bar that actually served Pizza! Real Pizza! I thought I was in heaven! That was, until I had to deal with the staff at the bar…
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Last weekend, I was informed that there would be a reading test on Tuesday. I had Monday off; apparently, they have a day to respect the elderly. I though that day was in August, but apparently, that was a day to respect the deceased. So, just so I get my Japanese Holidays in order, August Holiday is for the deceased, September Holiday is for the *near deceased*. ok, I joke…

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