Sunday Antoine and I met up in the morning and then walked up to Kuniko’s school to teach an open school lesson. The school’s usual teacher was away on summer vacation, so Kuniko asked us to teach a lesson each to try to get students to come to her school when the new year starts next April.
Walking up the hill in the morning in our nice clothes and ties was probably a bad idea. We were sweating like crazy upon reaching the top, and I’m sure the people working there weren’t too impressed with two wet guys showing up out of the blue.
We got inside and Kuniko met us there. Luckily our classrooms were air conditioned, so we had some time to cool down and get our sweat under control. How come Japanese people weren’t sweating like we us? Mysterious.
As we walked around the school before the lesson we got a chance to say hello to a lot of students and staff, and even watch some of the opening presentation – Hinzy and her fellow students in cheerleader outfits doing a dance routine. They did a pretty good job, and I was able to congratulate Hinzy afterwards.
We finally headed back down to our classrooms to do our lessons. Antoine’s lessons were aimed at elementary school students, and mine were targeted towards junior high school. Not only did we teach with a Yamate English teacher, but we also had a small group of Yamate students who helped out. That was a big advantage – the students that came to see the class were a little more comfortable with older students around.
The classes were kind of come and go as you please, so for the first 20 minutes or so we didn’t have any students at all. I chatted with the older Yamate students for a while, and then we had a few students show up.
We did about a 40 minute lesson with about six or seven students, and they seemed to enjoy it. They were really nice and not so shy. It was the first time in a long time that I had a chance to teach with Kuniko, and it reminded me about teaching with her way back when in Takanan.
Antoine’s class went much the same as mine, and we wrapped up and sent the students off to lunch. We got some free lunch out of it, and even some shaved ice – nice! Then we picked up a small envelope full of money and walked down the hill.
Kuniko had invited us to a party with the teachers that evening, but it was only about one in the afternoon so we had lots of time to kill. With the best of intentions we went to the Belgian beer place for a couple of cold, cold beers. That really hit the spot.
We ended up walking all over Kobe, but since it was so hot out, we mostly ended up in air conditioned bars staying cool and drinking cold beer. We had a taco at the taco stand near the station, served up by a heavily tattooed Japanese girl. We had bar hopped all over Kobe by the time we heard from Kuniko in the evening, but it sounded like we weren’t invited after all. I guess she had invited us to the second party, but not the first (with dinner). Bummer. We ended up going for one last drink, and then heading home early. The trains were massively delayed due to someone jumping in front of one (perhaps a losing politician?) and so it took a while for me to get back home.
It was a fun day, and I’ll be able to sleep a little bit of this off tomorrow since my classes don’t start until later. I’m considering a stop at the Denya yakitori on the way home, but we’ll see if it happens…
