Spring Daze

Yep, time is flying! I can't believe April is almost gone. It's pretty much Golden Week again! Tomorrow, my friend Emily and I leave for Tokyo. We'll spend a day there, going to an exhibition about "exoticism", which should be pretty good. I hope to maybe check out Harajuku or something. I feel like that would be one of the only reasons for myself to travel in and around Tokyo, haha. Then, we're off to Gunma Prefecture to visit my Uncle who I haven't seen in 20 years! He has been in Japan for quite some time and married a Japanese girl last year. It will be nice to see him again and meet his lovely wife (who is the same age as me!). Hmmm. . . what Kochi omiyage (souvenirs) should I bring. . . ?

The weather these days is fantastic. I hate that this only tends to last a few weeks, though. Then, it gets stiflingly hot and humid and everything gets moldy. . . aaaaah, Japanese summer! Cherry blossoms have finished their brief appearance, but many other flowers are at their prime. Birds are singing, cicadas and crickets are buzzing through the night, fruit flies are attacking my kitchen, frogs are hopping in and out of the BOE pond. . . I've been running into more and more spiders these days. I met my first snake of the season and my first seasonal huntsman, too - about the size of a half dollar. I'm actually glad to think that by the time he is face-sized, I'll be heading back to the U.S. and won't have to keep looking out for him anymore! Today we had "ensoku" (a kind of welcome party for the first years) at the junior high school. Students had teams and cooked curry. Then, we played sporty things, like running in a line to play janken (rock, paper, scissors). It was spitting a bit outside, but it's the nice kind of sprinkle, when the temperature is warm, but not sticky hot, a little chilly, actually. It's light jacket weather - my favorite! Also, this new JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) is lovely. I really appreciate her energy and enthusiasm as well as her ability to be loose and flexible. We're still getting to know each other and get used to each others' styles of teaching, etc., but I feel like this will be a nice way to leave my memories of teaching here. This is a really, really, busy, busy time. . . I have about 3 months left in Yasuda, Kochi, Japan, and I'm trying to make the most of it while I can. We have a few more taiko shows coming up, maybe three. Emily and I will be playing in a taishogoto concert in June with about forty other (old) women, so that should be fun. There is a little festival on the west side of Kochi called "Hata Fest" going on in May and I'm making/ selling jewelry and fruit & nut mix for that. I'm having a "Gaggle of Girly Gaijin" party in the last weekend of May at my house. For Christmas, I was Secret Santa-ed a whole bunch of facial masques and there's no better time I can think of to use them! At some point soon, we (East side Kochi JETs) are planning a bike ride to a curry restaurant. We're all looking forward to that since it got rained out of last weekend's plans. There's also an art exhibition taking place in Ino near Kochi City where four lucky foreigners (Mia, Emily, Jono, and myself) have been invited to participate! I've been very busy doodling monsters and such. It's pretty exciting and, though Ino is pretty small, a few of us have decided to dub this the "Ino Biennale". WOO! At the opening reception of this show, Mia was asked to perform something and she and I will also do a bit of a duet. It will be my first time actually singing to an audience in Japan and I hope they enjoy it. Definitely a lot to look forward to!

Aaaand It Starts Again

That was a very quick spring break. Now it's time for students to come back and start a new year of learning. I keep forgetting that they will all be one grade further next time I see them. I have had random occasions where I see some students playing here or there in Yasuda and they all look way bigger than they did last year, just after a week or two! Crazy. . .

Today was the day for 新入式 (shinnyuushiki - new student entrance ceremonies) and I forgot about the formalities. I dressed myself colorfully as usual today. Usually, it comes off as semi-professional to say the least, but today it was nowhere near that. . . I had on a flannel shirt and a gray jersey dress with orange tights and my orange and blue shisa(Okinawan lion statue) earrings. I looked like I was going to meet my friend in the park or something.

The looks of shock I saw on the faces of the other teachers made me feel somewhat bad, somewhat glad. Everyone was wearing suits and pearl necklaces and things. I stood out, as always, like a giant sore thumb. I was obviously a little embarrassed for many reasons: my predecessor wore a suit, blouse, and tie every single day during his four years here, suits and ties are black and gray while my blue, green, and orange are quite a distracting way to be different, no one is used to someone mucking up their 'special events' like this. I also had to give a short self-intro each time. I should have known more to say, but I didn't. On the other hand, it felt good to show them that I was still never conforming to their ways of being. The idea of us giving them some internationalization gets swallowed up by their attempts at making us more Japanese. I've never bent and I certainly am not going to start now. It gave the 'new' students and their parents an idea of what I was actually like.

I felt the worst because I was late to the 中学校 (chuugakkou - junior high school) ceremony this morning. Oh well, school will be beginning this week and it will be interesting to see how much I can get done with my students before they are no longer my students. It will also be interesting to work with a new JTE (Japanese teacher of English) at the JHS. She seems like fun. The elementary school teachers seem to be teaching the appropriate grades finally. In one way, I am hoping this time flies by (which I know it will) but I also hope to enjoy the remainder of my time as the Yasuda ALT.