Today was my last day at school before I leave for vacation. I had two classes, both with Mr. Hayashi. We amused ourselves by having the students write questions for me about my upcoming trip. They could write in English or Japanese, so we got some crazy questions. Here’s a sample:
“What would you do if the world was destroyed after summer vacation?”
“What do you prefer, American girls or Japanese girls?”
“What is the first thing you will do when you reach America?”
“Isn’t America dangerous? Why are you going there?”
“If your plane crashes in the ocean, what will you do?”
As an added twist, Mr. Hayashi had me try to answer the questions in Japanese. That lead to all sorts of embarrassing situations. The students were pretty supportive of me trying Japanese, and Mr. Hayashi thought it would be a good on the spot check of my abilities. I made lots of mistakes, but hopefully it’ll show the students that nobody is perfect.
We also had a firedrill today. The students ran out to the back of the school and stood in the hot sun while a fireman made a speech, and then the principal got up and made a speech. Only one student collapsed, which has to be a record.
On the way back I noticed cases and cases of Gatorade in the hallway. Apparently they were shipped to our school for free. Gatorade has made almost no headway in the Japanese market – it’s very rare to see it in the stores. The boxes said that the Gatorade was free for the members of the sports clubs. There were 20 boxes, and there were six 2 liter bottles of Gatorade in each box. Interesting strategy – we’ll see if it works.
Mr. Hayashi is using my departure tomorrow as an excuse to skip a party put on by the second year teachers. He’s “seeing me off” tomorrow, so he can’t go to the party. Not true, actually – I’m going by myself to the airport, but I’m happy to give him an alibi. He’s not much of a party person, anyway.
Tonight I did some last minute packing, and I ran out to the grocery store for a couple more little things to bring. The bag weighs 22 kg (48 pounds), so I hope that’s cool with the airline. I have to be at the airport tomorrow by 10:30 a.m., so I’ll be getting a fairly early start tomorrow.
Next update is from America – back to where I started from!
