Today was the first day back to school for our students, but there were not actually any classes. In fact, I didn’t have much to do but study and pose for a picture at the end of the day. I did get my schedule, and I spent some time trying to figure out what it really meant.
Last year when I got my schedule I had 11 classes listed, but two weeks later they had given me 7 more classes, so I taught 18 classes over the next year. That’s more than some other teachers had, and I’ll admit that it was challenging, but fun.
This year I had 13 classes listed on my schedule, but now I’m smarter and I walked around trying to figure out what else I’m going to be teaching. Mr. Hayashi added two classes to my schedule, not because I’m supposed to teach them, just because he wants somebody to help kill time when he’s in up in front of the students. He has a really laid back style teaching, just chatting with a few students up front and letting everyone else be bored and chat. Then he’ll tell me afterwards that the kids aren’t smart enough to understand what he has to teach anyway. Seems like the wrong approach for me.
Anyway, I told him that I hoped that my time in those classes could be used a little more effectively this year, and how I felt about last year’s standing around while he chatted up students. In a classic Hayashi response, he told me that he knows how frustrating it can be teaching kids that don’t want to learn, and he understands how I could be reluctant. Lost in translation, I guess.
I found out that I’ll be teaching a class with the new teacher, Matsubara sensei. She seemed surprised to find that she’d be teaching with me, and was at a loss for any kind of lesson plan or even curriculum. Our first class is Wednesday next week.
Finally Mr. Oshita and I have a class together, but he told me that he wouldn’t be requiring my services, so I don’t have to come to the class for the next year.
All of this seems pretty late in the game to be finding out, but this happened last year and it seems par for the course for my situation. I really worried about it a lot last year, but I’m taking a more practical approach this time, thinking about lesson ideas and getting a lot of stuff ready, just in case.
The school today had the opening ceremony and also the school entrance ceremony, which is just like the graduation only backwards. The new students come in with their homeroom teachers, sit down, listen to speech after speech, stand up, sit down, lots of bowing, and then file out again as official members of our school.
My highlight was the PTA representative, who gave the students a little grief for being so quiet when acknowledging their names as they were called out. Usually they say just “Hai!”, but he wanted something a little more robust from them. I’m glad that I was able to understand what he said – it was funny to hear the comments and it made me wonder how many other funny things I’ve missed in the past.
After school I went home and started making some guacamole and preparing tacos. I had invited the Kageyama’s to come over for dinner, and I decided to serve up tacos, which strangely has become my signature dish in Japan.
Kuniko arrived first directly from her new job in Kobe. She told me all about her day, and I really enjoyed having her there to help cook up dinner. Soon the doorbell rang, and Kuniko went to greet her parents.
Except, it wasn’t her parents. It was the apartment manager, who wanted to talk with me about paying my community management fees. Kuniko said she looked really surprised to see a Japanese girl opening my door, but she asked for me and we had a nice chat out on the landing. She also gave me some omiyage from her recent trip to Kyushu, so there’s more snacks to eat around here.
Finally Kuniko’s folks showed up with Kuniko’s washer and refrigerator, that were taking up lots of space at her parent’s house. We unloaded them and took them up to my spare room, and sooner or later I’ll rotate out my old things and put in her new things.
Dinner went really well. We sat around and I had everyone trying tacos and quesadillas. Kuniko was a big help translating, and I think slowly I’m getting more comfortable being around her folks. The language barrier is tough, but they are really understanding, even though I’m probably making lots of mistakes.
Kuniko’s mom had brought some homegrown shitake mushrooms, some waffle cake, and some beautiful flowers for the apartment. We had some of the waffle cakes for dessert, and then the Kageyama’s left for home. Kuniko and I organized some leftovers and then we walked out to Carrefour on the way to the train station to buy some supplies for the BBQ on Saturday night.
I was exhausted when I got home late that evening, so it’ll be really nice to sleep in on Saturday. Poor Kuniko has to work this Saturday for the entrance ceremony for her school, so she’ll need some relaxation when she comes back tomorrow.
