Due to a strange scheduling quirk, I had no classes to teach today. I spent the day organizing handouts and worksheets for my classes next week – normally I have a busy schedule each week. I’ve heard from some JETs that they have just a few classes each week. Melanie shares her school with two other JETs, so she only teaches about 10-15 minutes during each class. I think I prefer to be as busy as possible to make the time go by. There are still breaks in my day, so I can wander the hallways and chat with kids. They speak a lot more with me in an informal setting.
One of the part time teachers who helps coach volleyball and teaches home economics has always walked around the staff room, but has never looked me in the eye. When I walk by people I smile and nod or say hello, but she has been pretty shy. Today I made a breakthrough – we were both in the copier room making copies, and I asked her in Japanese if I could look at a recipe book she had. She lit up and I got the impression that the whole time she was just waiting for me to talk to her, rather than introducing herself. We got to talking, and she does speak some English – her accent was better than some of the English teachers. She invited me to visit the Home Economics class sometime and sample some of the food they cook – excellent! Now I’ve got to figure out a way to take her shopping with me.
In the afternoon I taught my teacher’s class, and it went fairly well. We talked about what we wanted to learn, and talked about some shopping terms in English. The difference between the word “expensive” and the word “inexpensive” was a tough concept for them – they sound very much the same. We spent about an hour, and then adjourned for the week. Next week we will be reading and ordering from menus. Some of the ladies in the club offered to teach me Japanese cooking, so I’m hoping that I can arrange something soon.
After school ended, I went over to watch the Kendo club in action. Kendo is sometimes called Japanese fencing, but it looks a lot like a samurai movie with wooden swords rather than the real thing. There is also a lot of screaming and yelling, and it is played by both boys and girls. The temperature has been super hot, and so the kids get in these big padded outfits and beat the crap out of each other for more than an hour, with screams of “Aiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!”. No wonder everyone is so thin around here.
On the way home I stopped at the grocery store and picked up some thin sliced pork to add to my curried rice for dinner. Even just dropping into the store to pick up pork caused a scene. While I was in line, an old lady asked loudly in Japanese where I was from, and everybody in the checkout lines turned to listen to my answer. After saying that I was from America, the lady nodded wisely like she had known the whole time. I turned around as I left and everyone was watching me go. At times like this I find myself checking my fly to make sure I remembered to zip it up. Talk about being under scrutiny.
After dinner I was sitting around and listening to everyone outside running around enjoying their Friday night. My big plans involved laundry and memorizing Japanese verbs. After doing my laundry, I decided to learn Japanese in a more fun, interactive way, and went down to the Yakitori place with my translated menu in my pocket.
As soon as I walked in the door, everyone hushed up and turned around. Somebody said something that sounded like “Hupp!”, which to my ears sounded like the Japanese equivalent of “There goes the neighborhood”. It was quiet for a bit, but as I sat down, the master of the restaurant came out and said something, and everyone relaxed and started talking again. I ordered a beer and some chicken and mushrooms from my menu, and then talked with some of the people there. Everyone was very curious, and I started talking with a guy that had lived in Ireland for six months almost nine years ago. His English was much better than my Japanese, but I did my best to keep my end of the conversation in Japanese.
The Hanshin Tigers were on TV, and they hit a homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning to come from behind and win the game. Everyone was whooping and hollering and chanting strange Japanese songs. I just went with it. The guy that had visited Ireland and his group kept buying me drinks, and we reviewed my English menu for accuracy. The master presented examples of each one. I tried pronouncing some of them, much to the amusement of the group. There were about four guys in their group, and two of them had brought their wives. Eventually they got me to join the group, and the guys wanted me to sit next to their wives and freak them out a little bit. The wives were drunk, shy, and curious all at the same time. Around midnight we called it a night, and I walked home, very satisfied with my Friday. Tomorrow I am going to Kobe to meet up with some friends in the late afternoon.
