Bara Babies

1. The Bara room. I got to visit the three year-olds again today and it was another wonderful day of rolly-polly-baby-laughter. I really think I'm the luckiest JET there is. Anyway, I felt pretty good about the amount of English I spoke with the kids today. Now that they know me a bit I feel like I can use more English and they're less likely to lose interest. When I say something to these kids they say things like, "she's still speaking English!" and "what are you saying?" but then they just laugh and we keep playing. Oh, and I also got to put them to sleep for their nap since I was there for the whole day. These are the days when I think, "I can't believe I get paid to do this." Fifteen sleeping babies = so adorable.

2. Bike rides after school. Today I biked to the post office to send something off to Minnesota and on the way I saw two of my elementary students. I heard them say, "Ah, Sarah-sensei" and so I called out, "bye-bye!" to them and they yelled, "bye-bye!" back to me. It's not uncommon but it makes me feel at home in Ujitawara whenever I run into my students outside of school.

3. Sara-sara. The latest thing that the students at the junior high, and the preschool have picked up on is how different my hair is from theirs. They've started messing around with it while saying, "sara-sara! sara-sara!" I believe 'sara-sara' is one of their many sound words and it means... I don't really know but apparently it can be said in regards to the consistency of someone's hair... "soft," maybe? It's actually really amazing; Japanese has tons of designated onomatopoeias like, 'byon-byon' for something that goes fast and 'kira-kira' for something shiny. Anyway, of course, they all think it's also funny that my name is Sarah, although, my favorite association will always be the fact that my name literally means "dish". Japanese can be pretty great sometimes. 

Moshi moshi

1. Moshi moshi. Today I taught some second years at the junior high and one of the taiko kids was in the class. I was helping the kids with their worksheets when someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was that one boy from taiko and he said something like, moshi moshi... something.... I don't know the rest of what he said, but he did a little dance with it. His friends were laughing near by and I could tell that they had made him do it. I felt kind of bad for the kid because I think he was a little embarrassed but I laughed it off with him and everything was okay.

2. Kosumosu (Cosmos) days. Yesterday I went to the Cosmos room at the nursery school and got to play with the kids. I feel like I'm starting to be able to use more English with them now that the kids know who I am and feel comfortable around me. This is great because I was starting to feel like I wasn't doing much good for them in terms of learning English.

3. Three day weekend! Again! I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like we get three day weekends a lot here. I think some of it is that I work on Saturdays sometimes and then get Monday off which makes it feel like a long weekend but... anyway, I'll be climbing a (small) mountain on Monday with Mamiko and then we're going to get our hair cut and go shopping... haha. It sounds funny, but I haven't gotten my hair cut since... May probably so it's about time.

4. Friends and correspondence. I don't know if I wrote to anyone about this, but I met a woman on the bus a few weeks ago who told me that she had spent about four years in Europe. Of course, I was impressed, but then she reminded me that at that time she could only contact her friends and family by mail. Since then I've really been grateful for the emails and letters that I've received while I'm here. I'm not sure if I would be able to make it for a whole year if I didn't have that kind of support and encouragement, so thank you, everyone! Keep writing to me, and I'll keep writing back! xoxo

Is it Christmas yet?

1. Singing in the office. Today I was asked to host a Christmas party/cultural event in the cultural center. We were brainstorming about what I should do (Christmas cards, present exchange) and my boss began singing "White Christmas." Before you knew it there I was singing "White Christmas" with two old Japanese men in Kyoto in early November. Oh, also they asked me if I could play it on piano- most female teachers take piano lessons in Japan. Anyway, I'm going to try. Those two years in elementary school have to be worth something, right?

2. Renée Fleming. If I can't have St. Olaf I can at least pretend I'm there while listening to a little Schubert. Side note: to all you musically inclined Olaf grads: if you have recordings you should send them my way. I'll make you famous in Japan. ;)

3. Charles Dickens: thank you for entertaining characters.
Dostoevsky: see above- also thank you for teaching me about Russia.

4. Minnesota: thank you for teaching me how to survive in the cold. Everyone here complains about the cold but I think I'm going to make it just fine.

5. Halloween. One epic night in Kyoto: bar hopping, kabob-eating, and karaoke singing until dawn. Not something I need to do every week, but not going to lie, it was great fun.

That's all I have for now. Keep warm!

Influenza!!!! Panic!!!! Part II

1. It's like a snow day...  School was closed again yesterday due to influenza. So, I thought that about 5 students had influenza (H1N1 I'm pretty sure) and now about 70 students have it. At our school that's about 1/5 of the students. So, I taught one class (in one of those medical masks, which is not easy when you're teaching a language) and then all of the teachers convened in the staff room for a meeting. I heard "influenza" and "meet outside" or I thought I did, but I didn't understand everything so I asked one of the English teachers who said, "The school will close from now, we will go home." So, I walked back to the office at the Board of Education and spent yet another day pretending to do work.

2. "Halloween!!!"  "-it's tomorrow." Last night my Uji friends and I went out to celebrate Halloween, that's right, one day early. Being busy bees in Japan, some of us have things to do on Sunday so Friday was the chosen night for Halloween mayhem i.e. Pubs and lots of karaoke. The night was a huge success as it was a smaller group of our Uji friends and the karaoke wasn't so deafeningly loud as last time. Also our prefectural adviser came out with us as well which was a trip. He's our age but is technically our "higher up." Anyway, we had kabobs as well and ended the night in a Rastafarian "bar" eating sweet potato fries and salad underneath a heavily canopied ceiling that looked like a college dorm room, just waiting to be busted for blatant disregard of fire code.

3. Japanese weather. It's 75 degrees here and sunny... and it's practically November. Just sayin', I don't mind the sun, I don't mind at all...

Influenza!!!! Panic!!!!

Ok, don't panic. That probably wasn't a smart title, but I'm leaving it.

1. School at the j-high has been closed due to influenza. Maybe 5 students have H1N1. This is good because I was actually beginning to worry about getting sick. School resumes on Friday. I'm not sure if this is an effective means of stopping the flu, but I like to think it helps.

2. I ate lunch with the 1st graders today. Today I got to spend lunch time with the most adorable 1st graders! There's one girl who always comes up to me at school to say hello and it was really fun to get to play with her and her friends out on the playground. Also, I was really impressed with one little boy who sat at the table and already knew how to say, "I like oranges". He is six years old! The 5th graders were working on that same grammar point today in class. It was interesting, though. I asked him where he had gone to preschool and it was a place I had never heard of (so probably a private school outside of Ujitawara) and the girl who was always running after me apparently went to the same preschool. Starting early makes a difference...

3. Curry: my unavoidable savior/foe. I know this is supposed to be only happy things, but this was funny. I absolutely failed at making miso soup tonight. The curry udon was the only thing that turned out. It tasted good, but wasn't what you would call a well-balanced meal. My friend Mamiko makes fun of me for eating curry all the time... I guess I just can't escape it. Oh well. :)

Soulmate(s): found

1. Three year olds. Today was my first day in the "bara," or rose, room with the three year-olds at the nursery school. They were the most adorable children I have ever met in my life. They were so tiny, but they could talk fairly well, unlike the two year-olds, and when I spoke English they would fall all around me in piles, giggling. So cute. So, so, so incredibly cute. They were also way less temperamental than the four and five year-olds. I don't think I'll be visiting them very often but I can't wait to see them all again. Oh, and the best part was when I left I stopped outside of one of the other rooms to say goodbye to some of the other kids and I heard a rushing of feet- about ten of the bara-kids had run out of their room and came down the hall yelling, "Sarah-sensei! Sarah-sensei!" My day was made.

Nothing else compares with that, but here are a few other things that happened today:

2. Taiko practice. Me and the Vietnamese beginners are getting better at our song "Don don bayashi". The best part of practice, though, was getting to see Trang. She's 24 and a mom already! Her baby is 3 years old and still in Vietnam with her husband. She's a really amazing person, I think, and really fun to be around. We play the same drum together so we have time to chat during practice. Also we got to talk to Yui who is one of the practice leaders of taiko. Yui is also really awesome. She's an incredible taiko player and really sweet. I think she wants to be a nursery school teacher, actually...

3. Halloween bingo. And I thought I would never use bingo as a lesson plan... I was wrong, and it's a good thing, too. Today was one of the most fun days at the junior high. I got to tell the class a little bit about Halloween and we had a good time playing Halloween bingo (I made a set of 25 cards for each student with pictures of vampires, werewolves etc.). It took a lot of prep time, but seeing as I had no classes yesterday it all turned out all right. Plus, it made me look really productive. Yes, I know how to wield a copy machine and pair of scissors with the best of them. I also drew some cute pictures... good times.

4. Apples and peanut butter. Thanks to my parents I have delicious peanut butter; thanks to Japan I have delicious apples. The perfect snack before bed...

Presents

  Other fun things happened today, but I think I need to let this one stand on its own:

1. In a brown envelope I received a wonderful letter from a good friend. There was also a neon pink post-it attached to what looked like a small pack of colored paper. The post-it read, "Enjoy these Anarchist posters! The blue one is my favorite."