Week of November 7th to 11th

Monday

First period was with 1-7 and they were genki and peppy as usual… the girls kept saying I was really kawaii over and over, and forcing the boys to tell me I was cute. lol. I wore my hair in a braid over my shoulder and apparently that was a big hit :p

2^nd period was sentaku with 3-3 and it was my first time doing my BSB lesson… it went overall well, but I was like “this song is sooooooo easy” when it started, but they totally couldn’t understand the American-y pronunciation of the song and were super confused as to the missing words. Oh well. They seemed to like the song and the video though. Brian was deemed the coolest. lol.

Then, same lesson with 3-6… aaah, my dear 3-6… you never fail to get a reaction out of me. I think it went well though, but both Taisei and Seiya were really sleepy so maybe the class wasn’t as lound as usual. It was Masamitsu and his little group that was the noisiest. When they got the pictures that were passing around, they decided that Nick looked like a Big Mac commercial (his mouth was opened) and proceeded to refer to him as “Makku” for the whole rest of the lesson, and they were looking for “Makku” in the video too… lol. They also waved me over at one point, pointed to Kevin’s eyebrows and asked me if he’d drawn them on. lol. I said they were real and they totally didn’t believe me. At the end of the class, I heard Masamitsu mumble to his friends “Vanessa’s music lessons are so fun” and I was just like “What?! Did I hear that right?!” that kid is soooo on-and-off… I don’t get him at all. Oh well!!!

lol, two random kids from another junior high school just walked into the staff room with the guy who usually sells sports goods (or something) and they were just staring at me like CRAZY. haha… that’s right, you WISH your school had a pretty ALT like me…. (yeah, I’m vain…)

Oh, I forgot to write this!! After school, when I was exiting the building, I saw some first year boys loitering by the gate and they were all “byyyyeee Vanessa!” and trying to chat with me a bit as I left. There was like five of them, and the group included Soma (1-1) and Yuuya (1-6) and Shu (1-2) and some other ones that don’t ever really talk. They were trying to tell me I looked so pretty and Soma was very obviously staring at my tits. lol. He’s like 12. Then they all kinda decided to leave at the same time as me and I thought it was cute. For a while they attempted to make conversation as we walked, but they pretty much can’t speak any English, so they soon gave up and ran off way ahead of me. It made me chuckle and I turned on my ipod and walked the rest of the way to the station. when I showed up at the train station, they were all there waiting. (They all live around here and DON’T need to be taking the train to go home). Soma asked me which stop I was getting off at, so I told him, before asking him where he was going. “oh I’m not going anywhere. see you!” and then he ran off again. wtf. lol. The funniest part was that while I was talking to them, these 3 kinda dorky-looking university boys were staring at us with this kinda “omg, I can’t believe these little schoolboys are talking with that blonde girl!” look, and when I passed them later they mumbled “beautiful!” at me, haha…

Tuesday

So here I was, really looking forward to the fact that I had only one class today, and that it was with my favorite group, and now they told me that I don’t, because since the 2^nd years are going off to like… “caretaking” training or something… Mizushima-sensei is going with them, so sentaku class is cancelled. pooh…

Wednesday

First period with 1-1 went well. Can’t remember much of it now except that Soma and his partner were soooooo eager to finish the crossword puzzle in time, so that they could get a sticker. Mr. partner was really giddy because I still had some panda stickers left, and that’s when I peaked a look at his name card and saw that nearly all his stickers were pandas. Oh yeah, that reminds me, at the beginning of the class, he was trying to steal one sticker off of Soma’s namecard and I went over and said “NO!” and he stopped and Soma came to grab his name card and told him, in English “you are bad boy!” and I laughed. then they both sat down and the kid asked “what does that mean?” to Soma in Japanese and he answered “I dunno”. lol! How the fuck does he not know?! haha…

Third period I had 1-3, and they were a bit more awake than usual, which was nice. The most entertaining part of the lesson was watching Dinosaur boy trying to impress the girl next to him – by constantly commenting on whatever to her – and watching the look of complete disinterest on her face. It’s kinda funny cuz I think he may have delusions regarding his coolness level. I mean, I love him. He’s like 3 feet tall and so so cute, but he’s kinda dorky. Earlier during the break, he had borrowed the glasses of some other kid and was striking these “macho” poses, while looking over the glasses… it was hilarious… I think in his head he thinks he is a cool playboy or something… the reality, however… lol!

Next period was 1-2 and they were as hyper as usual. Yuka needed the whole time to do grammar stuff so mostly I just walked around, tapping kids over the head with her silly “cat paw” stick if they misbehaved… or if they didn’t :p

I’m checking the comment papers from the music lessons with 3-3 and 3-6 on Monday. I started having them fill out a paper where they rate the song and write me a comment in English. It’s working really well cuz I can figure out if the kids enjoy the songs or not, and I was surprised to see that a lot of kids who seemed bored, are usually saying good things about the songs. ANYWAYS. I just got to Masamitsu’s paper. The last two weeks he wrote completely random crap (week 1 : I like apple. week 2 : dodosuko love <3) and this week’s jem is just kinda making my face look like this -> :/  he wrote “all over the woman love <3” wtf?! Considering I know who wrote this, there is no doubt whatsoever as to the meaning of those words… ooh dear…

Thursday.

Man… am I sleepy…. :/

Ooh boy. Staffroom. Before 1^st period. Everyone is all in a huff because Kazuma is not here again… don’t you people know by now?? Kid likes to skip school. No need to get all in a huff about it every single time! Geez…

On the way to class, Imari (who was chatting with these two other boys) stopped me to say hello, and then pointedly told them something that I didn’t catch. I made him repeat 3 times til I finally understood that he was saying “everyday ime-change” lol. Damn stupid hospital mask… the funny part though, was that he was telling them so matter-of-factly, like “I know that Vanessa changes her hair everyday… you may not have noticed, but I know because I’m just cool like that” lol. God bless you Imari!

Then I had sentaku class with 3-5, and even though they were all really sleepy, they were really into it… especially Kiyo, who was desperate to try to understand the words… It’s kinda funny to me how they really can’t understand southern American pronunciation; haha… the tv really does make everything better. Also some kids at the back were laughing at Nick’s hair, going “kinoko hair! mushroom hair!” lol.

On the way back, Daisuke chased me down and was like “Vanessa! Vanessa! Next lesson, what song?” and I said the Backstreet Boys and he made this confused face and said he didn’t know who they were. He said “Next time, Aerosmith! I like! Please let’s!” lol. I said “maybe next next time!” and he went off all happy.

4^th period was 3-4, and even though they were REALLY hyper during the break, class went pretty well. Of course most of them weren’t writing anything during the song, but I really think the tv has tamed them. They get really excited when the videos come on. yay! I don’t have to dread going to 3-4 anymore!

5^th period was 1-5, and they did their usual cheer as I walked in the class, which is always uplifting. A funny thing though, was that, as I walked by 1-6’s class, the kids went “ah! Vanessa da!” so I walked back and looked at the through the window while they giggled away. I did it like, 3 more times cuz they were calling my name. lol. I think they were sad that I wasn’t going to their class though. aww… they usually have English at the same time as 1-5 so I coulda been going there.

Friday

Finally Friday! yay!

On the way to class this morning, I ran into the boys from 2-1 who were heading to gym class, and after saying hello, I was just kinda walking ahead of them when I heard one of them say my name. So I slowed down, turned my head and went “Vanessa, what?” and Ryo got confused and repeated “Vanessa world?” so I just laughed and said “Vanessa World?! What’s that?!” and they all took off laughing and shouting “Vanessa world! Vanessa world!” lol. Wonder what kind of theme park that would be… wait, don’t answer that… :/

First class was 1-6 and they were really chipper. Yuuya especially was terribly bratty, but it was fun. When Yuka was explaining “over there” on the board, she went to the kids “do you know the song `over the rainbow`?” and the kids were kinda clueless so she started humming it and they booed her. Then they asked me to sing it and they went “oooh” and clapped. lol.

Next was 1-4 and I spent most of the time pestering this one boy at the front of class (Takumi, I think? not sure) and having to stop the two Akiras from play-punching each other… they’re sitting in front of each other now… I wonder if I’ll have to start calling them Akira-chan and Akira-kun like I do for my two Toshikis (who always sit together) in 2-2… lol. Little grumpy baby Hideaki was there too, and his hair got so long it just makes him look all the more like a grumpy teddy bear… He was just staring at me the whole time and giving me this kinda “what do you want?!” look, but then… why the fuck was he constantly looking at me?? This kid is very puzzling… maybe he just naturally looks grumpy and is actually a really cheerful person? lol.

Week of October 31st to November 4th

Monday

First period was 1-7 and it went quite well. They cheered a bit when I walked in but I think they’re doing it just to copy 1-5… Before class started, Ryunosuke looked at me, and he was looking at my hair and went “hmmm…. maybe I should dye my hair blonde too…” in Japanese. That was so fucking random. He’s a big tall kid with a buzz cut. lol.

Ran into Daisuke on my way to my second class and he basically ran at me going “Vanessa, Vanessa!!” and I assumed he wanted to tell me that he won at the chorus contest so I cut him off going “I know, I know, you won.” and that completely threw him off and he looked really confused, so I thought maybe he wanted to say something else after all and said “oh, ok, what is it” but then he just proceeded to tell me his class had won. In English. He is so cute because these days he keeps running at me anytime he sees me in the school and trying his hardest to tell me stuff in English. He’s trying really hard!

2^nd period was sentaku English with 3-3 and it went super well. They were genki and participative the whole time, laughing at my jokes and all that jazz… those are the best lessons. This one boy who was sitting at the front of the second row on the right kept getting “bullied” by the girls around him (the one behind and the one next to him), they were tickling him and/or poking him, but like, constantly for the whole class. I kept saying “stop bullying him” and “kawaiisou” (you poor thing) at him, and they just laughed… so at the end of class I randomly gave him a sticker because I said I felt sorry for him. He was all pleased with himself and put it on his name card. Hiroko was all shocked and kept saying “sekoi!” so I asked her what it meant cuz I didn’t know, and she pulled out her electric dictionary. Apparently it means “cunning” or “crafty”. Basically she was saying that the kid was putting on a show so I would feel bad for him… lol.

3^rd period was the same lesson with 3-6. they also had a good reaction but they were kinda bratty/noisy, and I had to shush them several times… also Masamitsu doesn’t like me anymore… he kept making little shooing gestures at me when I came near him… grr… and yet, he was kinda following along the class, commenting on various things. I dunno what’s his deal. pooh. Maybe he didn’t like me saying his hair looked like Dragon Ball this morning (I swear, it was like all spikey!! lol)

Daisuke and Imari ambushed me in the hallway and were just chatting at me excitedly, Imari was trying to ask me for candy, and Daisuke was trying to explain to me in English that he was going to AEON with his gf on Thursday (isn’t he so freakin’ cute??) and they were both tripping over themselves to get my attention and these two girls who were walking arm-in-arm behind me and watching the whole thing were like “nampa sareta naaa…” (basically saying the two boys were trying to “pick me up” lol). When they finally managed to get their stuff out, I told Daisuke he was a good boyfriend and he grinned from ear to ear, and I told Imari I didn’t have candy because I was poor this year. Daisuke laughed and told me – I swear to god – “too many accessories!” LOL!! These kids know me too well….

Tuesday

First period was 2-2, followed by 2-1 and they both went well but kinda whirlwindy so I forgot if anything really funny happened there. same with 3-2, except that it went really well and I had a pretty long chat with Dan and Kota, where Dan said he wanted to go study abroad in Canada, and that he had friends in Canada, and then I heard Kota mumble at him in Japanese “they’re not friends!” lol. I wonder if he has some little Canadian internet girlfriends or something?? That would explain why these two cool boys like English so much…

3-1 was entertaining to say the least. I think this class could have gone badly, but the tv saved the day so their attention was up the whole time. First weird thing was that when I walked in to class, Ikuto (the weird kid) came over and went “Vaneeeeeessaaaaaaa….” and just stood next to me and gave my arm a few little squeezes. Like he’s squeezing my arm fat and he likes it… did I mention the kid is weird? He did that to me last Friday as well, at the chorus contest. wtf…

Anyhow, another funny thing was this whole going way off topic for like 5 minutes while the kids were telling Shigeki-sensei that Aoshima-sensei wore a wig/toupet, and Shigeki-sensei didn’t know and the kids were just pissing themselves and they were like “you should ask him!” so of course he said “well I’m not gonna ask him that!” and then they went on “you should go to the onsen together! take him to the sento!” lol… This came about cuz I was teaching them the meaning of the word “shine” and someone brought about this one teacher who’s completely bald, and thus has a very shiny head…

Then after the bell rang, I was walking in the hallway and I’d just run into Yuka (the teacher) and was chatting with her when Minami ran out of the classroom shouting “Vanessa! kondou, asobou!” (it means “let’s play next time”, but basically “let’s hang out together” ) lol. A bunch of the guys laughed at her and went “you can’t say that to a teacher?” and Yuka was laughing, but I just said “sure, let’s go karaoke!” and she got super excited going “Really?! ok ok! Next Sunday!!”  Hum… not sure what I’ve gotten myself into here… but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t mind going karaoke with Minami so…

After school I went to the department store near my house to meet up with a friend for dinner, and I ended up running into two sets of graduated students! The first pair were both mine, and I couldn’t remember their names or if they had graduated one or two years ago, cuz I suck. One of them asked me “do you remember me?” and I said “of course honey! I don’t remember your name cuz I’m a bad teacher, but I remember your face!” and she said “yokatta!”  Cuteness. Then I swear like 10 seconds after I’d left them, I ran into one of my favorite kids from last year, Yuna who basically attacked me with a hug. She was with a friend from her new school, a super-tiny shy girl who seemed really well behaved and impressed by our relationship. I asked her Yuna if she was still dating Yuu and she went “No!! He was so bad!!” lol.

Wednesday

First class was 1-1… before class started, I was chatting with the group of boys near the window and one of them, Raimu, asked me in Japanese if I’d ever baked bread. It took me a while to get what he was asking because he was saying “pan tsukutta koto aru?” and I was hearing “pantsu”, which means underwear in Japanese, because he was speaking so fast, so I kept going “huh?!”  Anyways, I said no, and he went “whaaat?! When we were in elementary school, I asked you and you said you had!” Kid, how do you remember that? I can’t remember at all… also I possibly didn’t understand anything you were asking back then since I couldn’t speak Japanese very well… then he launched into a story (to these two other boys) about how I was in love with Kaisei. lol. (One of the other boys in that class) and I nodded, made a heart sign with my hands which cracked them both up. Then I went on explaining that it’s a joke, because when they were in grade 5, a lot of girls in his class were in love with Kaisei, so I said I was part of the Kaisei fan club too (he’s the only kid whose name I ever remembered from elementary school btw). The two boys went “majika?!” (no way!) and then, exactly at the same time, they both shouted Kaisei’s name really loud, on this super funny tone. lol. It was really really funny, though I guess you had to be there.

1-3 during the 3^rd period went better than usual… I was teasing that kid with the huge playboy smile and his little friend and they were totally into it. Then I went to 1-2 straight away because I didn’t wanna go down the stairs and all the way back up, and I swear, someone gave those kids sugar just before because they were completely nuts during the WHOLE break time! This one boy in the back, Kengo, was being “bullied” by about 3 different girls, and it was kinda hilarious. First of all, boys and girls don’t really mix in Japanese schools normally, nevermind touch, or participate in this kind of friendly bullying. These girls were all up on them! Climbing their backs, pushing them (oh yeah, there was another boy who got bullied a bit, but mostly just Kengo), ruffling their hair… when I showed up, Yuri – the girl next to him – was petting Kengo’s hair quite violently and he was laughing and squealing at the same time. lol. I walked in behind her and put my hand in his hair and started doing the same thing, and all the girls were giggling and Yuri told him “I’m not doing it!” so he looked up and went “ooh! bikkurishita!!” and everyone laughed. The second I stopped they got back to it and he started squirming “sensei! help me!!” so I went back over and I was like “sekuhara!” (you’re sexually harassing him!) and they just laughed and he went “yes! yes! sekuhara! stop!” in English… Anyways, they kept at it for nearly the WHOLE break… at one point I had to make a wall around the kid with my arms so she would leave him alone… lol.

The rest of the class with them was also really fun, but they were still so fucking hyper… even Yuka told me at the end “I’m sorry, this class is so crazy!” lol. It’s her homeroom actually, haha…. well, I’d rather crazy kids to zombie kids any day of the week….

Thursday

Today was a holiday. Japan has a lot of these random middle-of-the-week holidays… back home, when a holiday falls on a weekday, it just gets relegated to the nearest Monday or Friday, here, such rationale is apparently inexistent, thus middle-of-the-week randomness. There’s another one coming in about 3 weeks or so. wtf.

Friday

Veeeeeeeeery sleepy today…. thank god it’s a slow day. First period was 1-6 with Yuka, and when I showed up she was like “I need to just do grammar today, so if you wanna just go do your work in the staffroom, it’s ok”. I said I would stay, cuz the kids had already seen me and they get really confused if I show up and then leave, but figured I would bail the next one. A funny thing that happened was that, during the aisatsu, Yuka went “good morning everyone!” and the kids have to answer “good morning miss Shoji and Vanessa” and then one of the kids said “see you!” instead of good morning, to me, and after a few giggles I was like “eh? see you? ok, bye bye!” and I walked out of the classroom while everybody laughed. Yuka made the kid apologize and he was like “so-ri!” Awww… Other than that nothing too exciting happened except for the fact that this one kid Yuuya kept being a brat at the back of the class :p

Oh and, everybody is digging my blindingly bright pink shirt today, apparently… the school nurse just stopped me near the sink in the staffroom to tell me that my shirt’s color was “sugoi, kirei!” (that was random) and earlier I ran into Dan and Kota and one of them (who can remember, eh? it’s like they’re one entity…) said to me in English “oh! nice shirt today!” lol. gotta love that they are trying to impress me by trying so hard to speak English. and then, in the afternoon, the head teacher just kinda stop next to my desk and went “wow! nice color!” while I’m thinking like “dude, I’ve been wearing this shirt all day… you’ve just noticed??”

And on that note, my bed is calling. toodles.

Week of October 24th to 28th

Monday

First period was 1-6… it went well. This one little boy named Yuuta was like this when I walked in:

kid: hello!

me: hello.

kid: ohayo!

me: ohayo.

kid: (giggling) ohayou gozaimasu!

me: ohayou gozaimasu.

Kid and and friends burst into laughter. Glad I could be of service really. The rest of the class went fine, and then at the end of the class when Yuka gave them their tests back, they were all trying their damnest to hide their scores from me. but I always win. *evil laughter*

Second period was 2-4. Don’t remember.

Third period was 3-1 and, when I walked in, my crazy boys were all sitting on the floor in the back corner of the room. I went to ask them “what’s wrong, you guys are so quiet today.” and Kouki said “very very tired”. Yeah, me too, kid. Then that wacky one mumbled something that obviously had the word “oppai” (boobs) in it, and I made to kick his face with my foot (I’m nice like that) and he shouted “under hair!” and everybody laughed. lol. I’m not quite sure what he was trying to say… any ideas???

On the way back to the staffroom, I ran into a very sleepy-looking Kota who looked at me, followed by this pained thinking expression, and then said “next class, where?” and I said I had break after and he seemed confused so I said “no class, no. but we have class tomorrow” he nodded sleepily and walked into the bathroom. lol. So weird. I guess the kids like having a one-day weekend as much as I do.

Tuesday

First period was 1-7. They were generally peppy, as usual and I have nothing bad to say.

Second period was with 3-5. Mostly incredibly boring except for the fact that Ryohei apparently decided that he was going to be a host today, showing up to school with totally suji-ed hair (well, as much as he could get away with, with the JHS restrictions anyways) and cracking me up. There also was this funny part when they were doing the writing activity later on, and as I was walking by him, I heard the girl next to him say in Japanese “well just ask Vanessa” and he goes (in Japanese) “this person does not understand Japanese, why would I ask this person?” and I was standing right next to him, right? So I look down at him, and he looks up and I go “kono hito nihongo wakarimasen?” and the girl laughs and he looks guilty. So he asked me what the word he wanted to say in English, which was “lend” but I don’t even think he knew what he wanted to say in his head because he was just sooo confused… I ended up walking away. It’s funny and weird cuz he is usually quite good at English.

5^th period was with 3-2, and since they are my favorite class, it shoulda been fun, but just before the end of the break, Hasegawa-sensei came to tell/ask me that they were really behind so that she needed the whole class for grammar stuff… so besides a bit of tape-recorder-repeating, all I did was wander around and poke the kids who were falling asleep. Most entertaining moments were Daisuke trying to chat with me at the beginning of the class, telling me (as Ayano is standing right next to him) that he is broken-hearted, and when I asked him why he pointed to her and said “another love…” and made a sad face. Then she went “eh?!! no no no no!!!” and he laughed. I told him he was a liar and he was like “what’s that?”

Also Imari was pretty entertaining today, telling me that he had won the hello kitty plushy hanging from his pencil case at UFO catcher, but that he actually sucked at them. Then later, in the mini game, he actually sought me out to ask me the question (which I thought was cute) and then when they were doing this handout paper, I went over to tell him to write his name (cuz he’d forgotten) and he goes “No! No name!” So I asked him “are you no name boy?” and he goes “Yes! No! I am Michael Jackson!” lol. It was so fucking random…

6^th period was cancelled by Mizushima-sensei… dunno why but I totally saw it coming….

Wednesday

First period was with 1-1 and we did the math game. Nothing exceptional happened except that Soma burst into giggles at me when I was saying “see you” at the end of class, and I have no idea why, and it was just really, really adorable.

Next was 2-1 and it was a really fun class. All the boys were acting up so bad. (but in a good way?) and Wataru kept blushing whenever he saw me looking at him. They did pretty well on the writing activity so I’m happy and surprised! At one point, I was walking near to white-hair-boy (Yuta) and he went “hatsuon wa jouzu desu ne” (your pronunciation is good), but I wasn’t saying anything so it was kinda random. I asked him “in English or Japanese?” and he went “both”. lol.

As I was making my way to class in the afternoon, ran into 3-2 leaving, with Dan and Kota of course walking side by side. Kota spotted me, went “ha!”, elbowed Dan to look at me and said “maketa!” (you lost!)… wtf was that about? Are they taking bets on how I’m gonna wear my hair or something? That was soooo random….

5^th period was with 3-6. This class is kinda weird… they are either completely on, or completely off… today, they were on. They surprised me by being super cheerful the whole time. Even Masamitsu welcomed me into the class going “oh! beautiful!” (lol. I am wearing my hair in braids today… it always gets me a flattery reaction from the kids) and then I was making fun of him because he had two pair of pants on, and I was like “why are you wearing two pairs of pants?” and one of the other kids answered (in english!) “It’s different culture!” raising his hands and shrugging, which cracked up all the other kids. The reason why it’s funny is because that exact sentence has been studied in the last chapter of the book. Then they were like “sa-ge pants!” and I was like “what’s sage?” and basically they explained to me that it was “cool to have pants riding low on your ass…” lol. I told them it was like that in Canada too, but that one didn’t usually wear two pairs of pants on top of the other…

Anyways, the rest of the class was followed by more chatting and dicking around, and then, at the end I was explaining about “peek-a-boo” (the game we play with babies) to the same group of boys and they were just sooo interested in it. lol. Then the little kendo boy (forgot his name) pointed at my belly and went “do you have a baby?” and they all went “ooooooh!!” and I made to punch him. Little shit! argh! Then class was ending and they were like “no baby? no baby?” and I was like “no! I don’t have a baby!!!” and Seiya asked “do you have a boyfriend?” and I replied “no boyfriend either!” and he was like “zettai usso” (you’re obviously lying) and thankfully the bell rang, but I was still fuming! Little shits!! argh! (I mean that in a loving way….)

Thursday

First period with 1-2 was entertaining, to say the least… they were all soooo sleepy, but they were still trying their bests to participate… every once in a while I would stare at a kid and watch them notice me and then open my eyes real big and watch them giggle… (I entertain myself whichever way I can…) but mostly, it was the fact that Yuka caught Tatsuya trying to pass a paper around, and on the paper was this godawful ugly drawing of a person, and when she asked him who it was he said it was me :/ the character had big ginormous boobs. yay. and I’m wearing a super loose shirt today too, wtf…

I was supposed to have 2-3 during 4^th period, but Mizushima-sensei asked me not to come. I’m kinda bummed cuz I had only 3 classes today, and I like 2-3 so I was looking forward to seeing them. oh well.

Ok, so apparently there is no class this afternoon either cuz they are rehearsing for the chorus contest tomorrow. huh. On the monthly schedule thingie it says classes go til fifth period. I guess not :/

Friday

We had the chorus contest today and it was at the big fancy concert hall in my city. Every 3 years, Junior High Schools all over the city get to have their chorus contest there, so it’s my second time now cuz we had it there my first year. I don’t really have much to say about it because it’s the same every year, quite boring. and actually, we didn’t even sing the teachers’ song because apparently we were running behind schedule. I had NO PROBLEM with that whatsoever since I didn’t even know the song and it was in Japanese. I couldn’t even interact with the kiddies that much because the non-homeroom-teachers’s seats were on the second floor, with the parents, completely cut off from the kids on the main floor. I only saw them a bit at lunch time and during toilet breaks. For some reason everybody was squealing that I was so kawaii today. I guess wearing a jeans jacket makes me super kawaii :p

During one of the said bathroom breaks though, I saw these two teenage girls dressed kinda gyaru, and as I looked at them closer, I recognized two of my old students, who graduated two years ago. They were all happy that I recognized them, and one of them – Yuika – blew me away by chatting away in nearly perfect English. Actually, she was my speech contest kid that year, but even though she was better at English than her classmates at the time, she still had a hard time understand me all the time… but now… wow! and she told me that she’s going to do study abroad in Fiji next year! Wow, some people have all the luck!!

In the end, class 3-1 and 3-2 tied for first place, which was really surprising, but I guess it made more people happy. They were both quite good though, so I guess it’s nice. I can’t remember who won for the other grades, but the only ones that are really worth watching are the 3^rd year students, because the younger ones can’t sing at all. lol.