Weekly Digest : week of March 14-18 2011

Monday

So, I guess all of you have heard by now that there has been a huge earthquake in Japan. It’s pretty terrible, with horrid death tolls and damage reports, but actually, we have not been affected at all in “my” Japan, so today is business as usual. It does feel weird being back to work after all the drama we witnessed on the weekend though.

Ok, something weird just happened… Aoshima-sensei just came to talk to me cuz we have one more class together tomorrow, and he started to me about the earthquake and how scary it was… and we had a looooong 5 minute conversation (he never talks to me randomly so, that was long) and then asks me “so, can you teach?”, as if somehow, the fact that there was an earthquake (that has barely affected me at all) would render me unable to teach a class… eh?

aww, Mao (2-6) just dropped by the staff room to ask me if I wanted to go to her choir performance on March 23^rd. I was so upset because I had to say no since I’m doing the stupid English camp on that day. Technically, I might be able to make it cuz closing ceremony (they always have to have a damn closing ceremony for everything in Japan, don’t they?) is suppose to end at 4:30, but it’s never really on time (it’ll be my 3^rd year doing it. I know.) and usually the kids want to stay and chat and take pictures after, so it’s highly unlikely that I could make it to her concert, which starts at 5:30… I felt so bad! But I was really happy too because it’s the first time that one of my students has ever asked me to attend one of their events. I promised her that I would attend the next one “for sure!”, teaching her the meaning of “for sure” in the process :p

Just ran into Kumagai (3-1) on the stairs on my way back from the toilets… apparently the sannensei are going home now, but they’ve just gotten their yearbooks and he asked me to sign his. I wrote “I will miss your crazy faces, good luck in high school.” I had to explain what it meant, but then he was sooo happy and his friends laughed. Kumagai is this really weird nerdy boy from 3-1… anytime I would happen to see him in the hallways he would always make a creepy face (rolling his eyes back) or strike a weird pose while making a Michael Jackson “ooh!” noise, or come up to me and point to his friend and go “he is gay”. Weird is the only word to describe this kid, seriously, but somehow, he’s still quite endearing. ^_-

So today I was supposed to eat lunch with 3-2, and it was my last time of the year since Mami had left me a note on my desk cancelling tomorrow’s lunch, earlier today. Well, they forgot me, and I didn’t really bother going up to the class with my food cuz, well, めんどうくさい. But just now, Mami (who happens to be 3-2’s homeroom teacher) just shepherded the class’ two “English leaders” to come and apologize to me for having forgotten me. Except they couldn’t even figure out how to say it in English and it was super awkward. lol.

Why does Daisuke (2-1) always giggle when he looks at me? he just walked into the staffroom to ask Domoto-sensei for something and I looked up to see him glancing at me and he just started giggling, and then he kept on sorta laughing for the whole time he was there. lol. Seriously. I love that kid. He reminds me of Ichiro sooo much. (Ichiro was one of my FAVORITE kids ever, who graduated a year ago… he was really dumb, but always smiling, and for some reason had a radar switch to notice anytime I was looking at him. it was freaky. we could be in the gym will all 600 kids there and if I’d spot him in the crowd his head would flip around and stare at me. eeeeerie!! lol. wonder how that brat is doing?)

Tuesday

Today is the last actual day of classes. I was supposed to have 3, but then when I “reminded” Shigeki-sensei about our 2^nd period class, he went “ooooh…”, did a lot of teeth sucking, and so I offered to not come and he was like “ok. thanks. sorry.” Eeh, what a weird old man. He never remembers that we have class. Whatever.

I’m wearing an especially cute get-up today, wine-colored tights and a wine-colored wool shirt to match my new sky-blue tulip skirt that has old-red roses on it… anyways, it’s quite colorful, and really cutesy, so it’s been funny to watch kids do double-takes at me all day, before erupting into peals of “kawaii” :p

Had my last class of the day, of the year, was with 2-4. It was probably the best class of all times. GOD those kids are so much fun. We played the music dice game, and it was funny cuz they remembered it from last year (they were the only ones who did, apparently) and every time the music stopped and someone got chosen they would clap. Ryouga got chosen 3 TIMES!! lol. The first time he had a harmless question, then the second time, all the kids around him pulled away as the dice came so I could stop the music on him (I totally cheat) and then when he rolled the dice some boys changed it to 6 so he would get a challenge card, lol. THEN the 3^rd time he got picked (accidentally, sometimes the button slips my finger), literally the whole part of the class that is boys blocked him so he couldn’t fight back when he “rolled” a 6. lol. His challenge card was to “run around the classroom 3 times”, and he did it super slowly and as he was doing it, everyone was clapping and cheering “ganbatte Ryouga!!” over and over, like they do on sports day and it was all I could do to not fall on the floor laughing. It was so funny. They are totally my best ninensei class this year. Love them all.

Wednesday

There was another earthquake last night and it was a really big one in Shizuoka, so everyone I know here (foreigners) spent all of last night freaking out. Show up to school this morning to find out nobody’s really stressed about it at all. In fact, hospital teacher spent a good 10 minutes talking to me about how he just bought a jet-ski. lol. Since it’s apparently made in Canada, he thought I would know about it. I’m not sure but he may or may not have asked me to go try it with him one day…. ? (my j-go sucks, and I’m 90% sure he has a crush on me…)

Woaah… today is so boring. There are no classes today. Today is “graduation practice” day. So this morning, everyone went to the gym to rehearse whatnot, and now the 3^rd years are gone, and the 2^nd years are cleaning the school. I’ve just been shut up in the staffroom being bored. At first, I didn’t know that the 3^rd years had left already, so I went to their floor after lunch, because I still have to give passport presents to Yuna and two other kids, but then I saw all the classes were empty and a lot of ninensei girls were writing on the boards. Just as I was about to turn to go back, Moka’s head flipped around and she shouted “ah! Vanessa da!” and everyone turned to look, squealed a bit and Minami was there too, so of course we started talking. She looked at me, pointed at her forehead and went “patsu!” with a cutting motion. So I said yes, I had cut my bangs, and I spent like a minute explaining to her we said “bangs” in English. lol. Then I asked “what are you doing?” and she asked the others “ne, ne, dou iu imi?” (What does it mean?) and they just giggled and said “Minami, ganbatte!” and laughed, and I laughed too and repeated slower. She said they were writing goodbye messages for the sannensei. Then I asked why she wasn’t writing and she said she’d been forbidden to write by teachers. lol. I asked which teacher, and she said all of them. “ijime! ijime!” (it’s bullying!) I laughed and gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, and she laughed too. Then she said “DON’T MIND neeeee.” eheh… it was funny.

On the way back to the staffroom I ran into Nichika and his floppy-haired friend (whose name I forgot…) and they nodded to me and then Nichika said “hello!” and I said hello back and they just started giggling like little idiots. wtf?! What’s so special about my replying when you guys say hello?! Japanese kids of this age are so strange sometimes, because at times they are very obviously teenagers, on their way to adulthood, and then at other times, they are so totally little kids. WAY more than teenagers back home… it’s kinda cute actually ^_-

Thursday

Today is graduation! and just in time for it, it is ridiculously cold!! There is a piercing, freezing wind outside, and it’s 3C!! On March 18^th!!! In my Japan, that is just fucking unbelievable… I remember my first graduation two years ago… it must’ve been like 20C because it was SO nice and warm and we were all standing outside without jackets. Well, no so today. I’m presently trying to rub back sensation into my toes (not working) since I wore cute little (but very weather-inappropriate) black heels to match my dressy skirt. Dressy black cigarette skirt being the only concession I made to the ridiculous ritual that is graduation in Japan. Of course, today, I am the only person not wearing a suit, except the 3 sannensei female teachers, who are in kimonos. The last two times I’ve done this, there was always one of the 3^rd year teachers in a special graduation kimono, but this year I guess they all did it. The homeroom teacher of 3-5, who’s a bit chubbs, looks especially ridiculous in hers, with her hair all done up in curls, because she also coaches the baseball club and is normally so butch. Everybody is wearing cheap-looking flower corsages – that I have now noticed they are grabbing from a big box by the window – but no one has told me I should or could get one, so I remain corsage-less.

So now I sit and wait, until 9:30, where I will have to make way to the unheated gym, and freeze for two hours, while trying not to fall asleep listening to long-winded speeches in a language I can’t understand. Fun times! I’ll tell you more about it when I get back.

Aww… so I went off to the 3^rd year floor with my bag of presents for the 3 kids that had filled out their passports (cuz this was basically gonna be the last chance!) and all the kids were so excited, nervous, sad and emotional! So cute. I managed to give all my presents away (and a few more, cuz I’m a bad teacher like that and I totally have favorites). I poked my head into 3-6 when I was looking for Yuna, because she wasn’t anywhere and kids were mingling wherever and not just in their own classes, and Kaede came over to see me (and very obviously stare at my tits) but he was freakin bouncing off the walls! He pointed to himself with one thumb going “excited!” lol. Then he waved Kouki over and he was looking all calm and sad. He looked at my face and went “me ga dekai” (your eyes are so big) and it gave me a little pinch to the heart because I know he has a crush on me and was bittersweet/sad about saying goodbye. I asked them if they were gonna cry and they both said yes. lol. In Japan, it’s totally ok for men to cry. lol.

Before the ceremony started Asuka-sensei told me to go with her, but then when we left all the 3^rd year classes were coming down the stairs so we had to wait til they’d all passed. It was pretty cute because a lot of the kids were waving at me and calling my name. One dumb kid (Hideki) made a “big boob” gesture and I wanted to punch him. But the funniest part was when Yuu passed by and he said to me “not nebocchan!” and then I yelled at him that his hair looked nice today, which made Yusuke laugh behind him (possibly because he was the only one to understand what it meant).

The ceremony itself was ridiculously long and boring. Seriously, if they cut out all the bowing from it, it would last one hour instead of two. Mayuko (3-6) made a speech towards the end and she was soooo good at reading! Like, the inflection of her voice, the pausing, the little gasps… I mean, I didn’t understand much of it but it gave me the chills nonetheless. I couldn’t see many people crying from where I was standing, but I could hear the sniffles, and I had to suppress a giggle when I noticed that Tatsuya, one of my pervs and big cool boy, was BAWLING. He was so red in the face.

At the end all the3rd years sang a song on the stage, and there were a lot of red faces, but a lot less than last year. Then, they started leaving and everybody clapped. I made my way towards the door so they could see me as they left, and the best part was when Yuu noticed me, I stuck my tongue at him and he gave me a thumbs-up. I almost started crying right there!

After that the whole school goes to the front of the building, in the parking lot, makes a “hallway” for the graduating students to pass through (lining on both sides) and clapping, and saying goodbyes. The 3^rd years will give their corsage flowers to their kohai (younger students who are either in the same club, or just their friends) and give them cheering words of goodbye. I was standing with Minami and it was kinda hilarious because she asked at least 5 different boys to give her the 2^nd button of their uniform. Usually, that’s a high school thing. Well nobody did it anyways, lol. When Kaede walked by at the end, he stopped to say goodbye and I asked him “where’s my flower?” but he smiled guiltily cuz he had already given it away. Students kept on passing by, and we clapped, and then, Kouki, my number 1 perv, who was the very last student from 3-6, came and gave his flower to me saying “for you” with a huge smile, and I was SOOO happy!! I dunno, I can’t explain it, it was really touching.

Oh another funny thing that I just remembered. One time, when the graduation students were passing by, one mother pointed to me and tapped her daughter on the shoulder and went “oh! why don’t you say goodbye to Vanessa!” and I thought it was funny because obviously I don’t know that mother, but she knows me! It makes me wonder how many of my kids go home and prattle on about Vanessa-sensei this, or Vanessa-sensei that to their family… it’s kinda weird. lol.

Friday

Well, I have a feeling nothing much will happen today. We already had the closing ceremony and I did my duty as the school mascot, but it was pretty uneventful. And this afternoon I have a meeting at the board of education and I won’t be here. I think that this morning, the remaining kids will be cleaning the classrooms and moving their desks up to the next year halls. Or not. Anyways.

So I thought I would mention what happened after school yesterday. It’s not really “my” kids, but it’s cute. I dunno if I’ve mentioned it before but there is there are these two little girls (like maybe 8 years old?) that I pass on my way to the station after school, who are usually playing outside in the driveway of one of my 2^nd year students, Shiho. At first, they used to hide when they saw me coming, and then they started trying to say “hello” to me and running away. The first time was really funny because I was walking, listening to my iPod as always, and I couldn’t hear them shouting “hello” behind my back, until one of the songs ended, and I thought I heard something, so I turned around and I saw these two little girls there behind me giggling. but the thing is that, we were about 2 blocks down from their house! So they had followed me all this way, “shouting” hello at me. lol. and then when I smiled and said hello to them, they ran off!

Then, earlier this week, as I walked by, they rushed over to the fence of the house where they were playing and this one little girl asked me “nihongo shaberu?” (can you speak Japanese?) and I answered “a little”, and so she asked “do you live here?” and I said yes. I told them I thought at the junior high school. and she went “oooooooh… we go to the elementary school… ah! Do you know Emily-sensei?”, the ALT who goes to that elementary school. As it so happens, I do know her, so I answered that I did. “sugoi!! Emily-chan daisuki!!” awww… I thought that was really cute. I said bye bye and was on my way.

Finally, last night, as I walked home, there was a big group of them playing in the driveway. Without stopping their game, a few of them shouted “hello” and that same girl from before called out “Hello, junior high school English teacher! bye bye!” lol. So now I have been upgraded from “nameless blonde foreigner” to “chuugakkou no eigo no sensei”. lol.

Have a good weekend, all. Be safe!

Weekly Digest : March 7th - 11th

Monday

urgh, it’s Monday. Had class with 1-5 first thing and they are Shigeki-sensei’s homeroom and so he spent his whole half of the class doing homeroom-related things (aka, not English), then we played Pictionary, but I was relayed to the job of referee because he took each and every kid aside to “help” them understand the words. Kinda grossed me out too cuz he would just grab them in an almost choke-hold, and then “whisper” in their face, but he was so close it looked like he was almost kissing them. Not only was that gross in itself, but Shigeki-sensei also has the foulest breath of anyone I’ve ever met. (and that’s saying something, in Japan) It smells like something died in his mouth. eww. Happy Monday!

Yui and Rina from 2-5 came to get the passports and info about class during the break. they’re a really funny pair, always together. Then on the way to class, Yui was talking to Hasegawa-sensei and she went “waaahh… eigo ga kirai!!” (I hate English) and Hasegawa-sensei was like “I love English, repeat after me, I love English” and then she goes “I don’t love English”. and I laugh and she goes “how about Vanessa, don’t you love Vanessa?” and she laughs and wraps her arm in mine and says “love Vanessa! but dont love English!” aaaah, bless. I tried?

Class with 2-5 unfortunately, was super boring. Even the game failed to raise them. No wonder they hate English.

After class, I ran into Minami (runner up for my #1 fangirl) on the stairs and she was like “Vanessa! mata yaseta!” (you lost weight again!) and I was like “no honey, I didn’t but thank you!” it totally cheered me up. haha. Love that kid. Plus she’s gotten so much better at English. She almost always talks to me in Japanese, but then her friend commented on how cold it was and I said “where did the spring go?!” and she went “neeeeeee..” which meant that she agreed, so she’d understood what I said. I would’ve easily rated Minami as one of the weakest kids in 2-1 at the beginning of the year, but she’s actually made visible efforts and now she can communicate with me. I think it’s awesome. ^_^

Tuesday

Today was my LAST TIME EVER of going to elementary school!!! I’d probably be happier about it if I wasn’t sick with a cold, meh. The 5^th graders were all especially cute today, even that annoying little fucker who is always loud and never listens in the first class, he was surprisingly well behaved today. The girls kept petting me, in every single class, because I was wearing my super large cashmere cardi again. and then in the last class, they were adorable and they gave me a goodbye/thank you card with pictures of all 3 classes and me teaching them. It was sweet. “omochikaeri-kun” kept pestering me to hug him and then was like “let me goooooooo!” when I did. Silly boy. Then they didn’t want to let me leave and wanted me to eat kyushoku (school lunch) with them but I had to say no because I had class here in the afternoon. Sadness.

I want to make a side note about “omochikaeri-kun” I dunno if I’ve mentioned him yet. He is my favorite 5^th grader, he is sooooo cute!! He looks like he’s 5, he has a little hamster face with chubby cheeks, eyes that crinkle to tiny slits when he smiles, and a perpetual huge grin. He also wears little black-rimmed glasses, which make him all the cuter because it’s like he’s a nerdy, hamster. lol. Btw, “omochikaeri” in Japanese is what you say in a restaurant or shop when you are ordering something to go. It literally means “take and bring home”. So one time, I told that kid that he was so cute and I wanted to take him home and he was like “noooooooooooooooooo!!!!” and he ran away from me giggling. The following week, he came up to me, pointed at himself with one finger and went “omochikaeri-kun?” I laughed so hard, and have been referring to him as that ever since. He pretends to hate it, but he loves it ^_-

After I got back to JHS and had lunch, I had my last classes with 2-3 and 2-6. I nearly fell asleep in 2-3 as the JTE took more than half the time to correct their translations (all in Japanese) and I was feeling dizzy cuz I’d forgotten to take my medicine. And then in 2-6, both Ryota (the brat) and Masamitsu (super cute boy that I suspect of morphing into a brat cuz he’s friends with Ryota) came to tell me that they had “forgotten” their show&tell paper, for the 2^nd week in a row. Now this made me kinda mad because if it was back home I could dish out some kind of punishment, detention or “you get zero”, but here, not only does stuff not count, but there is no possible punishment you can give to a child for any kind of misbehavior, besides yelling at them, which doesn’t do much. I told Ryota he had to dance in front of the whole class, but he was like “no way!” eh. Class was kind of a bore, until we started playing Pictionary, and they surprisingly got really into it even though they sucked. That class is REALLY weak. lol.

Wednesday

Well, the school year is dwindling slowly, so from today on, I pretty much have only one class a day til the end (except for next Tuesday when I have 3).

Just had my only class of the day, which was also my last class with 1-1. Fun times, they were really cute. Everybody was commenting on how “kawaii” I am with my glasses, which I think is funny. It always happens when I decide to wear glasses, which is not very often, and my kids somehow seem to think that it’s a fashion choice, not because I’m totally blind. lol. Just before class, this one girl came up to me and went “hi! my name is Sakura! let’s talk English!” which I thought was so cute, so we chatted for like 5 minutes in super easy sentences and then she went back to her seat, all chuffed cuz she could talk with me. Gave me warm fuzzies, eheh.

Oh crap. I really wish nosy-sensei would just mind his own business and stop “inviting” me to school events in the gym that I don’t know about - therefore don’t need to be. There goes my free afternoon. That said, I guess it wasn’t useless this time around cuz it’s the 3^rd years’ “goodbye ceremony”, so I went. Mostly, it’s just the 2^nd year members of the student councils making thank you speeches and there is the “revealing” of the answers of a silly survey that has been asked to all the 3^rd years. The questions this year were “what was the most memorable time of junior high school?” (3.sports day, 2.chorus contest, 1.field trip to Kyoto… NEVER changes every single year),  “what was the best kyushoku?” (answers were terribly boring so I will spare you) and “if you could reincarnate into anything or anyone what would it be?” (3.god, 2.a cat, 1.myself… that one was pretty interesting and then they showed other random answers they’d gotten, including the name of the baseball coach, who is hugely popular. lol). Anyways, after that, there were messages from two of the teachers that don’t work at this school anymore, one of whom is a guy who spent his first month here trying to “pick me up”, and the other who is now my BoE supervisor, so I guess it was funny to see their speeches. The kids were happy too as they were both popular teachers. Anyways, at some point during all of that, I realized/remembered that this ceremony is also the time when the school hires a theater troupe to put on a play for the whole school, and I was like “fuck it, no way in hell I am staying there to be bored out of my mind for two hours”. I don’t care what nosy-sensei thinks when he realizes that I am not there at the end; two years is enough. Besides, the play last year was super depressing about a boy who died. It demands too much mental capacities for me to focus on people speaking Japanese for 2 hours, so usually everything just ends up blurring and I just zone out. 2 hours is a long time. never mind that it’s FREEZING in the gym. aaah, no thank you.

Thursday

I only have one class today and it’s in the afternoon. It’s gonna be a loooong day!

I had to eat lunch with 3-1 today, and I was hoping that they would “forget” me since the last two classes of 2^nd years have (last week and this Monday), but I guess the teacher who’s in charge of distributing the lunch schedules to the homerooms finally realized she’d forgotten for March because the girl in charge of English was there bright and early at 12:25 to “pick me up” for lunch. groan. It was mostly uninteresting with kids not talking much and Takuya glaring at me a few times… well, at least it’s over.

My only class of the day was fifth period with 2-4, thank god it went so well. All we did was play games the whole time and everybody was genki and participated. Happy Nessa. Both Kota and Junpei finished the passport stickers, which means I have to get them a special prize…. what to do, what to do…?

Friday

TGIF!!

Nothing special happened today since I only had one class, with 2-2, and it was the last one and we just played games and it was fun. OH! but there was a huge earthquake in the middle of the afternoon!! It didn’t affect us much here but the building was really shaking back and forth a lot for quite a while! kinda scary!

on that note… I’m off!!

Student file: Minami

Minami is one of my favorite students by far, and when all my 3^rd years graduate, she will probably take over the crown of my number 1 fangirl.

She’s a 2^nd year student in 2-1, but has been really interested in “Vanessa-sensei” since she was in 1^st year. Possibly even since elementary school since I did teach her a few times. Minami is awesome because she’s super precocious. She’s always been tall (even in grade 6) and she is loud and aspires most likely to be a gyaru and shop staff. She has a lot of “older” friends that are now in high school, and some of them are drop-outs too. When I first found out that she was good friends with Anna (one of the 3^rd year drop-outs) I was afraid that she might eventually drop-out too, but now it doesn’t seem very likely. She seems to enjoy her school life.

The thing that makes Minami so charming to me, is that she thinks I’m her friend. she comes up to me in class to tell me of all the school laws she’s breaking, like piercing her ears (they’re not allowed!), wearing dark green color contacts, or dying her hair slightly brown. It really cracks me up. Usually she waves me over, shows me whatever thing (ex. her pierced ear) and then brings a finger to her lips and goes “shhhh….” and winks. in my head I keep thinking “you do realize that I am a teacher, right?!” but I can’t be mad at her for breaking those rules, since I think they’re stupid anyways.

Another thing is that she always comes and chat with me anytime she sees me. And she makes an effort to understand English, because she likes me. When we first started the year, she was extremely weak at English, but I keep working with her in class and now she’s improved tremendously. She’s still by no means good, but she tries. it makes me really happy.

one of my favorite Minami moments (besides the law-breaking ones) was one time when I was having lunch with her class, and I was sitting at another table, and the kids at that table were all being super quiet and not talking to me. Minami, from across the room, shouts at a kid at my table and goes (in Japanese) “hey! aren’t you talking to Vanessa?! This is a good chance for you!” and when they mumbled some half-assed answer, she proceeded to spend the rest of the class shouting questions to me in half-English-half-Japanese for the rest of lunchtime. <3

Weekly Digest : february 28th to march 4th

Monday

Nothing much happened today and I am a right zombie… I had all my last classes with 3-1, 3-3, and 3-6 and I feel a bit bummed that they didn’t go better than they did, or that kids didn’t seem particularly sad, and that they didn’t seem to particularly enjoy the game and were just loud. Sigh. Maybe it’s because I’m out of it. Who knows? That said, I did a little happy dance in my head after my lesson with 3-1 since I never have to teach them EVER AGAIN! For the last few months I have dreaded every single class with that homeroom, because the bane of my existence is in it. the ONE kid in school who hates, me – possibly for the sole reason of being different from everyone else since I am pretty much venerated by every kid in school – but he fucking pushed my buttons one too many times and now I pretty much just hate him and want him to fuck off from my school. *sigh* also, that class is terribly lazy and weak at English, mostly cuz their teacher is this old man who can’t teach at all and just translates everything I say. It makes me sad. They should ship him off to early retirement already! Anyways… so I’m having a kind of BLAH day.

LOL! Imari just walked into the staffroom, looking for another teacher most like, and I was typing some reply on a messageboard that I’m on, and he just leaned over my shoulder and peaked at what I was writing for a good 5-10 seconds with a look of utter concentration on his face, then he pulled back and looked at me. “Can you read it?” I asked, and he looks at the screen again, before bursting into his usual goofy grin and saying “zenzen yomenai!” (I totally can’t read it) lol. I just thought it was really cute :p then Teppei showed up in the doorway and they both stood staring at me typing in the computer and went “tsume sugoi” (her nails are wow). And so Imari sauntered back over and brought his face super-near my hand to examine my (long and fake) nails for a few seconds before trying to pull one back. He laughed, I laughed at him then he took off. lol. I love that kid.

Tuesday

Honestly, I’ve kinda checked out (of my own head) today so not much happened that is worth reporting, and of that which has, I can’t really remember much. I did have fun and forget my worries a bit during show&tell class with 2-4. I was sitting next to Ryouga (I always sit in whatever seat is empty at the back for speeches) and he kept pestering me to look at what grades I was giving people. He kept leaning over and pushing against me like an annoying little kid. He asked me why I was drawing stars next to some people’s names so I said it was because they did good and I’d give them a sticker. Then he spent the entire class trying to draw a star next to his name on my paper. lol. Love that brat. Oh and Kota kept telling me “Ryouga is stinky! Stinky!” and Ryouga would go “not skinky, no!” lol. such mature kids, I have!

Then after I got back to the staffroom, some kids came to return keys and sleepy boy poked his head into the doorway and said “hello!” so I said “hello, nebocchan” and he went “no! not nebocchan, noooo…” and his friends laughed and pushed him out the door, and then from the other side of the door I could hear him yell, in a hulk-like voice “I am not nebocchan!” haha… btw, “nebou” means to oversleep, so my calling him nebocchan means I’m calling him “oversleeping-cutie” or something like that. Haha…

Wednesday

I had my last class with 3-5 this morning, which was also my last 3^rd year class ever. 3-5 has always been my favorite (this year) so I’m happy that it went down really well and the kiddies were adorable. Yousuke pulled some hilarious stunts too, and it made me go “aaaaaww!!! I’ll miss you all so much!!”

Yousuke is a tall kid with long floppy hair, whose name I didn’t know for the longest time, because he was either always sleeping, absent, or didn’t talk at all. Then one day, we had a one-on-one conversation test and he just freakin’ blew me away by answering every question cheerfully and easily, and telling me he liked indie American rock bands. I was like “excuse me?! Who are you and what the hell have you done with the kid who never does any work in my class?!” I even told my JTE about him after that incident and she was like “oh yeah. Apparently he’s like that in other subjects too. Super smart kid”. No way, I was shocked. Since then, he has become one of my favorites and I always go pester him when he’s not working.

So anyways, I had the kids playing a board game in their lunch groups, in which they had to make English sentences. When I went by his group to check that they were making correct sentences, Shoma was asking Yousuke “are you crazy?” and Yousuke went, “no, no! not crazy!” and everybody laughed and started saying he was and he turned to me and went “listen! listen!” and pulled on my hand and launched into a lengthy speech – all in English – about how he hadn’t slept at all the night before, but he was not crazy. I laughed and said I was happy that he had come to school today, because it was our last class together. And then he said “yes, yes, I came to school even I didn’t sleep because it’s Vanessa’s last class! I came for Vanessa!” and every word he added was louder and louder and he was just screaming at the end and the whole class was listening to him. Then he shouted out “but I’m not crazy!!!” and the whole class started laughing. Lol. <3

Oh and at the end of the class, I had them play shiritori on the board for like ten minutes and his team won. The thing that cracked me up though, was that his first word was “crazy”, and the last one was “win”. lol. How smug can you get :p

On the way to my next class, I ran into Daisuke, a 2^nd year boy with a buzz cut who is always acting crazy so we have our usual banter where I tell him he’s a crazy boy and then he points to me and goes “crazy girl!” and we go back and forth til I get bored or have to leave. lol. recently though, he started saying “it’s a crazy girl!” and I told him he had to say “she” not “it” because it means not a person, but he only thought it was funnier and kept doing it. So anyways, I was passing him being silly with his friends down the hall and I smacked him on the head with my papers going “it’s a crazy boy!” and he acted all shocked and ran after me to shout “crazy girl! crazy girl!” but I was already gone. I won this round. eheh. And yes, I have the emotional maturity of a 14 years old.

My last class before lunch was with 1-1, and I simply adore that class of kiddies. They are adorable. And they’re so tiny still. They were really genki today too and kept cracking jokes… one kid kept pointing at his partner and going “he is not human”. lol. I guess I can’t remember anything funny happening, but the whole class was really enjoyable, and it cheered me up so much.

Thursday

Went to the elementary school today, blergh. But I am happy about the fact that it’s the second to last time I have to teach the grade 6’s this year!! Also, during the last 15 minutes of class when the teacher was having them write a “speech” and most kids were doing fuck-all, I plopped down on one of the desks and started chatting with the 3 kiddies around me. Much more useful way of spending that time, lol. conversation topics involved my nails, my hair and how the one boy included in our conversation should be a model. lol. such important things….

Also, it’s freezing cold today, like winter decided to make a reappearance, and when the two little girls came to pick me up for the second class, one of them was practically shivering. Well duh, she was wearing shorts, with no tights. Hello!! Today, in attempts to battle the cold, I dressed in a really really warm oversized soft wool cardi, and since they where both going “attatakasou~” at me (it looks waaarm!) I was like, “ok, come in!” and opened the giant thing big enough to wrap it back around the 3 of us. We walked to class huddled together like a 3-headed alien. Cuteness.

During class with 1-4, we played Pictionary. I know last time I said 1-1 was my favorite, but actually, 1-4 might be my favorite :p it changes depending on the day. Anyways, during the game, at one point, this super adorable kid that I love because he looks like he’s still in like grade 4 of elementary school, gets up and picks a food card. He picks “rice” but he can’t understand it. I whisper “gohan” to him and he nods uncertainly. Then he starts drawing a piece of corn on the board, and I’m like “no, no, no!” while Mizushima-sensei is pissing himself laughing in the corner, but the kid keeps on drawing. Eventually, someone in the class shouts out “corn!” and I’m like “ok, I’ll give you the point, but he was supposed to draw rice!” and everybody starts laughing. The kid looks up to me and I go “gohan!” and he just kinda shrugs and gives me the cutest smile ever! toooo cute!!! Other similar mistakes included mistaking ramen for lemon, and coffee for beer… lol. And another funny thing was when Atsuya, probably the dumbest kid in class (no offense, I love him but he is SPACE…) guessed the answer for a picture in like 5 seconds, when everybody else was racking their brains trying to understand the other guy’s picture. Everybody was just kinda dumbstruck, then started laughing. It was awesome.

Afterwards I had class with 2-2. We were doing show&tell and I was a bit disappointed since they are quite a genki bunch, but most of their speeches were really boring. The biggest source of entertainment came from Nichika’s bright red cap (which he’d brought cuz he’s a street dancer, lol) and various people trying it on and looking ridiculous. At the end of the class, before greeting, the girl next to him handed it to me and I put it on my head, backwards. Nichika didn’t even notice a thing since he was babbling away to his friend and everyone started laughing. JTE said “stand up” and they all stood up and Nichika still wasn’t paying attention and so his neighbor poked him and he finally turned around and his eyes popped out of his head and everyone started laughing. “see you!” everyone chorused and I gave him his hat back. I love that kid, but I think he knows it and is annoyed by it, haha. Well, half-annoyed. :p maybe it’s cuz I’m always asking him to dance… lol. He and his little gf Yuna have been going to special dance classes out of town for a few years (I’ve bumped into them on the train after school a few times, so I know :p) and I think it’s really cool, but he won’t show me. haha.

Friday

Mizushima-sensei’s homeroom class is soooo odd. They are like a little army of perfectly behaved pint-sized robots. When they do “mokuso” (one minute of silence before the bell rings, with their eyes closed), you can hear a fly buzzing around and no one even opens their eyes when they can hear my footsteps coming in. It’s so funny. I mean, in other classes kids are giggling, struggling to keep their eyes closed, or just plain not doing it at all. I guess I should tell you a bit more about Mizushima-sensei though, so you can understand. Imagine a yanki in your head. Got that image? Now imagine a yanki as a teacher, minus the blonde hair. That’s Mizushima-sensei. He has that weird flat-banana hairstyle. He talks using “ore” and “omae”, and gets really rude when scolding the kids. If you piss him off, you don’t do it twice. He’s actually a really good and funny teacher, but he also reminds me of a drill sergeant; hence why his class is so well behaved. Had class with 1-6 this morning and we did Pictionary. Fun times. Nothing special happened. There is a kid named Riku in that class. I just love him cuz his name is Riku. lol.

After that I went to the elementary school to teach to the grade 6’s for the LAST TIME EVER!!!!! So happy! Also I was told that I wouldn’t go back there next year! woohooo!!! I was like “oh, really??” trying to steele my face to not glow with happiness as they told me. lol. 6-3 was a little better behaved than usual today, although I was pleased to find out that that one girl who is really weird and inappropriate (always poking me in the belly, saying it’s big, or trying to grab my tits…) will NOT be coming to my junior high school next year.

I don’t have class this afternoon.

On that note, peace out! TGIF!!