Week of October 10th to 14th

Soooorry! last week I was very sick! so I pretty much didn’t write down anything of what happened….

Monday

was public holiday.

Tuesday

First class with 1-7, they cheered when I walked in ^___^  especially Eitaro. Really loud. Which made me wanna hug him cuz he is soooooo cuuuuuuute! Class went well.

2^nd period with 3-5 went okay. I was watching Kiyo not doing one of the speaking activities (where they have to walk around asking other people for their answers) so I was gonna go over and ask him the questions, but he saw me coming and started running away from me! lol. I chased him around the classroom. Twice. Then he went and asked some other kid.

On the way back to the staffroom, I ran into Dan and Kota. Dan just mouthed “hello” to me, so I mouthed it back, then Kota said “hello!” and Dan smacked him upside the head and said in Japanese “No! You have to do it silently!!!”

5^th period was with 3-2, so I was looking forward to it, but then the bell rang and Hasegawa sensei wasn’t showing up. I waited a little bit cuz sometimes teachers are just late, but she wasn’t coming at all. She hadn’t told me anything about it so I wasn’t sure what to do. I was chatting with the kids a bit; Daisuke and Ayano were being all “raburabu” and almost holding hands under the desk. *cute* and they were looking at some purikura and I asked them if they had puri together, and he gave me a big “yes!!” and she went “no no no!” I laughed and said I wanted to see it. Dan and Kota were being pervy teenagers and daring each other to say stuff to me in English, except I could totally hear them mumbling “nice body”, and a more entertaining “what are you doing tonight” in perfect English, which cracked me up. Finally someone told me that Hasegawa sensei was taking the class picture with her homeroom for the yearbook. That’s nice. Couldn’t she have told me before? Anyhow. So I made them play crossfire and we still managed to finish before she got back. :/ Then we just did review and practice for the test for the rest of the class (when she finally came back) Dan decided he was sleeping through the whole thing, and no amount of poking could get him to actually do anything. Then this other baseball boy, Takaya, was just sleeping on his desk, and I went to poke him awake. He perked up, but 5 minutes later I turned around and he was sleeping again. Later, I was messing around with Daisuke (who sits just in front of him) and pretending to punch him awake, and Daisuke goes “shh… broke heart. It’s ok”, making a sad face and broken-heart gesture with his hands. Aww… has this big tall baseball guy gotten his heart broken by a tiny JHS girl? Poor kid. So I let him sleep :p

Wednesday

Today, morning classes were cancelled because of the sports test day. When I showed up, the staff room was empty and most of the teachers were outside on the field. I thought that was weird because I don’t remember it being like that in the past (I also don’t remember having a special day just for P.E. tests, but then again, maybe that’s just me getting senile…) but mostly I was just worried that someone was gonna come and ask me to join them. A) I’ve been so busy with classes recently that I have been relishing this day of doing almost nothing for a while, and B) I had to plan some lessons for the next 1^st and 2^nd year classes, so I needed that time to do that, not to go and pretend to be useful out there in the sun. Anyways, no one did so all was well.

During 5^th period, 3 teachers had special demo classes (one in each year) that other teachers went to observe. Normally that means I get to sit on my ass by myself in the staffroom, but unlucky for me, one of them was Shigeki-sensei, and he had asked me (like 3 months ago) to “please assist” him. And by that he meant answer one conversation question and then walk around the class helping the kids as they work. Hard work. But whatever, since I didn’t have anything else today, I took my role as his shadow very seriously :p It was with his homeroom, 2-4 – or in other words : Masaya’s class. The aforementioned specimen was surprisingly well behaved, and class went really well, mostly because Shigeki-sensei had already prepped them and told them exactly what they were gonna do… *shakes head* oh well.

When I walked into the class, Manaka greeted me by flashing this towel at me and going “Vanessa! look! look!” and I was a bit puzzled til I noticed the towel said “Tohoshinki” and so I was like “cool!” and gave her a high five. She said to me “I love ~ (honestly, I forgot which one…)” and then she posed and said “my mother loves Yuno”, doing a little hearts gesture with her hands, which was really cute. Then I told her that I liked Changmin and she went “nooooooooo!!! XX much better!” lol.

Another funny thing was that we were studying “I think that ~” and during the intro part of the lesson, Shigeki-sensei asked (as a joke) “what do you think of my hair?” Well, this one kid who is sort of an overachiever and really good at English stands up and goes, super confidently “I think it’s great!” lol. My JTE is like 60 and his thinning grey hair. Also, the same kid’s team’s speech at the end went like this.

A: Do you know mister Shigeki? He is my homeroom teacher. He is kind and loves sake. What do you think about my Shigeki?

B: oh I know. I like him. I think his hair is great.

ROTFL.

Thursday

Really sleepy this morning, and really unexcited by the perspective of having 5 classes. Lucky for me, due to some mysterious fucking up of the schedule (again) 2^nd period disappeared so I only have 4. actually, I may have 3 cuz I saw the sub teacher girl earlier, which means Yuka isn’t here, which means that she probably forgot that I’m supposed to go to her class, which means that if I don’t go, nobody will know…. hmmm….

Anyways, first period was with 1-1 and it was pretty uneventful. At the beginning of class, Soma was looking at all the stickers on his name-card and asking me what happened when he got to 20. I told him he’d get a special prize and he went “ooooh…” really thoughtfully. It was kinda funny. Also, I realized that he is now taller than me. He’s 12. I feel short :/

Next was 1-3 during 4^th period. They were REALLY boring. Most entertaining moments involved me going up to this TINY kid who has GIANT eyelashes (they look like fake lashes.. they are that long!) and freaking him out by trying to touch them and saying “wow, your eyelashes are so long!” and having him reply in really polite Japanese “yes, I’m often told that” lol. Then this other kid was talking to his friend and referring to me as “kinpatsu sensei” (means gold-haired teacher) which cracked me up. And of course the tiny kid with the beauty mark under his eye who answered “I study dinosaur!!” when I asked “what do you study”…  (remember last week he told me he WAS a dinosaur? :p)

Then, I stopped by the teacher’s toilet before going back to the staffroom, and ran into this young part-time teacher who teaches Japanese and has never ever talked to me (I secretly hate her cuz the hot teacher is always hitting on her as well…) and she goes to me (in Japanese) “aren’t you hungry?” so I reply that indeed, I am hungry. She giggles and tells me that she is so hungry too and always looks forward to eating kyushoku…. hhhmmmm… Okay! That was fucking random…

Last class of the day was regular English with 3-6, and it was pretty boring at first, but actually turned out really fun towards the end. First off, during break, this one kid was looking out of the window and I crept up next to him until my cheek was almost next to him but just behind him, to make him freak out when he turned around – which he did – but the funny part was that when he walked back to his seat, all the other boys were teasing him, going “you stud! You just kissed Vanessa! woooh!” lol. (I didn’t even touch him, FYI…) then, during the class there was this big argument with the one group in the back about how you were supposed to say “Daibutsu” in English, so I said “big Buddha” and they thought it was hilarious and refused to write it down and kept on going Daibutsu, Daibutsu… and then I said “there are 3 daibutsus in Japan” and they just cracked up and kept repeating “daibutsu-zu” like it was the most hilarious thing in the world… Honestly, I didn’t really get it, but they seemed entertained. At the end, I got to play my game and they surprisingly got really into it, which was a lot of fun. One of my questions was “this type of music is liked by Vanessa” and the first kid who’s hand shot up was Seiya (the tall one) and he went “visual!” and that was correct, so I gave him the point, but then Taisei yelled from the back “That’s not fair! He’s a Vanessa otaku!” and everybody laughed including me. It’s especially funny considering that kid is not one of my fanboys at all…

Friday

First period was 3-4 and it started horribly bad, with them being more I-don’t-give-a-shit-about-anything than I’d ever seen them before… but it (to my incredible surprise) turned around at the end. Mostly, Ryota was just being super loud, wandering around, talking over Hasegawa-sensei… He even spent a good 5 minutes out of his seat in the back, talking to Ryouga about weekend plans, and then shouting over some other kids’ heads at Yasutoshi to ask if he was in as well, and I was just watching them but it took AGES before Hasegawa-sensei even said anything. Then she started reading out the names of all the kids who hadn’t handed in their notebooks for correction, and starts chiding them, and Ryota goes “eh? not me?!” and she goes back to her list and exclaims “of course, you.. how did I miss you…” which was kinda funny and everybody laughed. Then they did their stupid practice test... most of them… and when it was time for my game at the end, I was super worried, but what do you know, Mr. Bad Kid himself got SO into it. First of all I asked them “we’re gonna play a trivia game. Who knows what is triva?” and when I asked this in the other classes no one knew, but Ryota jumps up and “demonstrates” smashing a buzzer button, making a buzzer sound. And I’m like “yeah, that’s right!” So we play the game and he’s SO into it… and even answered some of the questions correctly. lol. Actually his team won (not because of him, but still) so he finally got a sticker he earned, for once, haha…

2^nd period was 2-2 and at the beginning of the class, Yuichiro was sitting with his earthquake pillow over his head, mumbling “I am a pumpkin” in English… wtf. Class went well. Can’t remember too much of it now though.

3^rd period was 3-3 and it went really well. I always forget how good a class this is since somehow I don’t see them that often. I spent most of the time dicking around with Kaho and Tomoya in the back of the class… they were really entertaining. When I was talking to Kaho, I peered at her eyes and went “heeeey…. are you wearing contacts?” and she looks at me with a clueless look so I go “colorcon!” and she gives me this sudden look of shock and anger and brings a finger to her lips and goes “secret!!!!” lol. Like, who would I tell? Actually, I was surprised cuz it really wasn’t obvious at all. Afterwards we kept harassing Tomoya and calling him “tomochan” and he kept saying (in English) “please call me Tomoya” and Kaho was pissing herself and she asked me if I was in love with him.  I said yes, cuz he’s sooooo cuuuute, and she just wouldn’t stop laughing and he was super embarrassed. Also he wrote “I want to kill you with a sword” on her paper, in cursives… I was like “wtf?! And how do you know how to write in cursives???” at the end of the class, he asked me to explain to him what “damn it!” meant. lol. where does he find these words?!

Oh and also, one of them had written “Geromu” in katakana on Hiromu’s desk, and at first I thought it was Ke and not Ge so I asked “why Keromu” and they go “no. Ge. Gero”. and I’m like “Gero… oh!” and burst out laughing, which cracked them up. Gero means “puke” in Japanese…

Finally 5^th period was with 1-5. When I showed up on their floor, there was apparently some kind of mess going on, with some of the teachers directing the kids into wiping the floor next to the sinks… they kinda finished as I made my way through and I heard voices behind me go “masaka… go kumi?” (basically, “can it be? she’s going to group 5?!” and I heard them and raised my hand showing five fingers and they all ran at me from behind going “yaaaaaay!!” and they all attacked me with high-fives. lol. Cutest thing ever. When I walked into the classroom there was more cheering and I went “I love you guys! you always cheer when I come!” then this group of kids at the front where talking and pointing at me and all I caught was “dekai” which means “really big” and I asked them what they were talking about, and it was my earrings. Apparently they were baffled by the size of them (which is funny cuz I wear them almost every day… it’s not the first time they’ve seen me with them) so I said “big? No way! These are my work earrings. I wear even bigger ones on the weekend!!”  I don’t think they believed me…

Speaking of which, I believe it’s time to go!

Week of September 26th to 30th

Monday

Aaah, back to work after a week of retardedness. Not too genki today for personal reasons but class this morning actually went well.

I had first period with Yuka in 1-6 and I ended up teaching the whole thing because it was a 45 min lesson and the chimes were broken and we started late… anyways, it went well.

Then I had 2-4 with Shigeki and of course Masaya was a nutcase… he kept saying something about me having miso in the brain? “miso tariru” or something? Anyways, it was very easy to understand that it meant that I’ve got a few lose screws… lol. He also asked me if I was wearing fake lashes, and said that it was better with my nails off. (I took them off about a week ago…) Then at the end of the class, I forget why but I said to him “thank you darling”. I mean that’s just kinda normal for me to call the kiddies “honey” or “sweety” or whatnot, but in Japanese, “darling” is the word you use for your boyfriend, and Manaka heard me call him that and she went “she said darling! darling!!!” and wouldn’t stop giggling… I think he got upset because he started babbling on about me being “rebound” again and honestly, it was kinda incoherent. Then after he was like “Vanessa don’t reboud, ok? you can’t gain weight again. no way! ganbatte!” LOL. I can’t help it, I love him so much even though he is an annoying little fuck. but it’s also painfully obvious that he tries extra hard to be annoying just to have my attention ^_-

Then in 3^rd period with 3-1 it also went well. It was my first time having regular English with them since the end of summer vacation and the vibe was definitely very different. Minami was falling asleep on her desk with her mouth opened. Nichika and Kouki were being SUPER loud, and it was kinda annoying, but they were being loud while answering the questions and actually doing the work, so… Also, when I walked into the class during break, Nichika and some other boys were playing at hitting each other on the legs with towels…… :/ yeah, I don’t get it either.

Ooooh boy… Nami just walked by my desk to go talk to another teacher (with another friend), then she backtracked and came over to whisper that I was “very very cute”, walked back to the other teacher’s desk, then backtracked again and went “Vanessa… I love you!” in her super random “Nami tone”, and I laughed and said “me too honey” and she walked off again. Then she ran into her homeroom teacher and told her in Japanese “I was just doing English conversation with Vanessa! look, look!” and she dragged her over to me and repeated the whole “iloveyou/me too” scene for the benefit of the teacher, who patted her on the shoulder. LOL!

There is this full length mirror on the wall of the level between the ground floor and first floor… the staffroom is on the 1^st floor, and the lady teachers’ toilet is on the ground floor, so if I have to use the toilet, I have to go downstairs and walk in front of the big mirror all the time. Well, I just did that now, and on the way, I heard voices from above me going “I am Vanessa, I like Vanessa…” and at this point I was almost at the end of the stairs so I dunno if they were talking about me cuz they saw my reflection in the mirror, or if they were just randomly talking about me, but I decided to wait for them at the bottom, around the staircase to let them know I had heard them. The look on their faces as they saw me was just priceless. Three 2^nd year boys. Shock, followed by embarrassment and a shy grin. tihee!!

My two chalk girls just came over and were like “oh Vanessa! You cut your hair!” (in Japanese) and then one of them goes “color?” and I say yes, I colored it a bit, and she goes “green”. lol. Indeed, the toner was a bit too strong and some bits of my hair have a greenish tinge. It’ll wash out in a day or two, but yay my dear sweeties for your complete lack of tact. Then they started talking about how the color was actually quite nice, and petting my hair saying it was really soft and going “iiiiiii naaaaaa”. lol.

Tuesday

Ex-fattie 3^rd year boy (I forgot his name… I swear he lost like 30lbs over summer vacation! I should ask him his trick!!) was asking me if I was cold in the hall on my way… then Yuta, the quiet baseball boy with glasses comes over and joins him, showing me that he was wearing a HEAT TECH shirt… wtf… It’s 23C outside… and then, as I started to argue with them about how it’s not really cold, Rina grabbed my hand and just dragged me back to her classroom with her. I didn’t even have class with her class…

During class with 3-5, Hasegawa sensei may or may not have made a sarcastic crack at my lesson planning skills… she went “let’s play Vanessa’s fun game! We are so thankful to Vanessa for making this great game!” and I was like “Really lady? It’s battleship… either you are a bit of your rocker, or you are making fun of me…” either way… meh. It IS a fun game, so shut up! Plus the kids love it and it fits the grammar point. End of story.

Just now in the staffroom, Kouchou-sensei stopped by my desk, pointed to my shirt and went “steki”. I went “huh?” cuz I wasn’t sure if he had said “suteki” really fast or something else, but no, he went on “suteki… kirei… iro ga kirei… niau”. (wonderful, beautiful, the color is beautiful… it suits you well). I mean that is a lot or super random praise coming out of nowhere from the principal. So cue me saying thank you and blushing like an idiot. I guess I should probably mention that my shirt is pretty form-fitting too… so he was probably just looking for an excuse to stare at my tits… oh well.

3-2 in the afternoon with Hasegawa-sensei went well. Daisuke kept practicing this dance or speech thing he was supposed to do as the leader of his team for sports day (more on that retardedness later…) and it was kinda funny but kinda annoying. Dan and Kota had their comedy act going again and kept going “he is stinky! you are stinky! I am stinky!” and doing funny poses… during the game I was trying to explain what a nickname was, and so I said “my name is Vanessa, but my friends call me Nessa. It’s my nickname” and so on the way out of the classroom in the hallway, Dan was like “hey Nessa!” thinking he was very funny. Also I had a little posse of boys following me around, Kota was going “hey, what’s your name?” and I’m like “Vanessa. you know my name” and he goes on, “no, no, I don’t know your name!” and I’m laughing, so I ask him “what’s your name?” and he raises his arms and shoulders and goes “I don’t have name!”, all the while, Nichika and Kouki from 3-1 have appeared out of nowhere, asking me if I’m heading to their class for sentaku English next period. I said no and they looked super distraught, then kept walking along with me, Dan, Kota and whoever else was there. As we passed the door of their classroom, I heard Minami yell “Vanessa!!!” and Kouki yelled back “Vanessa inai! there is NO Vanessa!” lol. The whole thing happened within about a minute. It was really odd.

Then I had 2-6 with the kid who no longer has chubby cheeks and is so cute. I made him my little assistant for the game demo. mwaha.

And now for the retardedness. Earlier today, I asked Hasegawa sensei why today was short schedule and she said “because we will have sports day in the afternoon”. So picture me super confused cuz, didn’t we just have sports day on Thursday? Surely I didn’t dream all of that… No, no. I was quite sane. Apparently, instead of having sports day ending around 6pm on Thursday, someone had the bright idea of leaving it unfinished, and then adding an extra two hours today AFTER SCHOOL for the races that were missed because we started late. Most retarded idea ever. Of course no one told me, and I didn’t go to the enkai and left before the end so I wouldn’t have known, but still. I’m pretty sure everyone expects me to be outside right now, and the kids would probably like it if I was cheering with them, but A) I don’t have my sporty clothes (not that it matters really, but you know) B) it’s really sunny and I have a fucking headache, and C) I learned about it about 2 hours ago, I am not mentally prepared for this shit. So fuck that.

Wednesday

First period was 1-1. On the way I always run into all the first grade students going to classes in the main building so I have a million kids in a row going “hello!” to me, and then Eitaro passed by and went “hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!” for seriously like at least 30 seconds, and it was really funny, and then his friend told him (in Japanese) that he was crazy and they ran off to class cuz they were late. lol.

Schedule was all fucked up again. Why?

Third period was 1-3. That tiny kid with the strange name and a beauty mark under his eye was mumbling something that was meant to be funny in Japanese, but I couldn’t understand (it was a slang word I didn’t know) and then he stopped and started going “I am a dinosaur!” and I just laughed and said “you’re too small” and he looked at his friends all confused so I said “chiccha-sugi” and he made a face and all the other kids laughed so I felt a bit bad and said “maybe you’re a baby dinosaur…” and he carried on going “I am a dinosaur!” I left him to it.

Fourth was 2-1. The “cool boys” were discussing who was using hair wax in their hair (they’re not allowed. also they’re 12. lol) and I accidentally spit on gyaruo boy and he made a big show of wiping himself. Oops. Ayumu was being his usual attention-seeking-little self. and Wataru kept turning around to look at me during Shigeki’s part of the class and if I looked back at him he would smile shyly and look away. Cuuuuuute!!! I want to adopt him, seriously.

Thursday

First period was 1-2, Yuka’s class, but Yuka was absent today and I was teaching with that weird sub girl… Ok, I’m mean, she’s not weird she just looks really stuck-up :p Anyways, my lesson took all of the time so I was teaching the whole lesson.

4^th period was with 2-3. Did I mention I LOVE 2-3? They are so freakin’ adorable… A few of the boys are totally in love with me and always come to talk to me super eagerly during breaks, but as opposed to the brats in 2-1 (whom I also love…), they are SUPER well-behaved during class, which makes teaching them a pure joy. They are like your dream class as a teacher, basically… always eager to answer your questions and do what you say. Anyways, I walked into class to Kazunari shouting “Vanessa, I love you!” at me, and a few of the other boys giggling, like they’d dared him to it. He had a bruise or something on his bottom lip so I asked him “What happened? Did someone punch you?” and he goes “no, no, no! sick!” I made a face and went “oh, did you kiss somebody?” and he went all red and laughed, saying “no, no, no!” again. lol.

During class, when I asked for volunteers (I needed 2) Daiyu and Jun’s hands shot up almost before I could finish my sentence, and then Kazunari looked all bummed out that he hadn’t been fast enough. Cutie. At the end of class, they came over to chat again (the same group of boys) and Kazu was like “hello. my name is (last name) Kazunari, nice to meet you!” and so I said nice to meet you too and shook his hand. Then Daiyu also went “Hello. My name is (last name) Kazunari, nice to meet you!” and I said “no! You are a liar!” So they’re all going “lion? he is lion?” and then cracking up, so I explained what liar meant, but they all kept on “he is lion! haha!” so I said that actually I was a lion. Well a leo. and I tried explaining the zodiac to them but it just flew right over their heads, and I didn’t know the word in Japanese. At one point, cutie-pie Yusuke was like “Vanessa, ganbatte!” (which gave me an inner “awwww”) cuz I was trying to find the words, but in the end I just couldn’t.

As I was walking out the door, Marina (one of the girls who likes VK) chased after me and asked me something in Japanese and all I could understand was “Miyavi”. She was basically asking me if I was following him on twitter and I said yes, and she was like “oh, I have a twitter too! Your twitter name is Vanessa?” and I went “eeh……….. chotto chigau” (it’s a little different) and I kinda smiled and ran out. Not that I don’t love her but… I REALLY don’t want her adding me on twitter! :/

After lunch I googled some stuff about the zodiac and printed it out so I could go and show it to the boys from 2-3 again. They were chilling in the 2^nd year hallway and so a bunch of other boys from 2-1 also showed up and they were all trying to see their horoscope… but of course it was all in English so they were kinda frustrated, haha. Daiyu and Kazunari seemed pretty peachy though ^_^

5^th period was 1-4 with the sub again. Went really well. Everyone was so genki… Akira was adorably confused again. I went to help him answer the questions, and the first one was “who is your best friend?” and he was thinking and answered (ever so slowly, cuz that’s how he does everything “jaaaa…. Vanessa ni shiou…” (I’ll choose Vanessa) and his friend in front of him laughed and so I put my arm around Akira’s shoulder and went “yeah, me and Akira, we’re best friends!” so he went ahead and wrote “Vanessa” on his paper. lol. and then later on, one of the questions was “what’s your favorite food?” and I was explaining while giving my own answers as demo, and I asked the kids if they knew what my favorite food was, and they started throwing random guesses and I was like “no, no, no…. Akira, what’s my favorite food?” and at first he was confused and then went “Ha! Takoyaki!” and he looked sooo pleased when I said “that’s right”… it was adorable. and then he went “yappari, kansai-jin da ne…”

Hideaki (the little grumpy one, I always call him Hideki… oops!) was also in a super chipper mood. He kept joking around and even waved me over to help him out a few times!!! I was so pleasantly surprised! Later on, as I was checking answers and giving out stickers, one of the boys did something silly (I forget what) and so I exclaimed (to myself) “he’s so cute!” and one girl nearby heard me and went “cute?!” and so I said “yes, I love ichinensei smaaaall boys. They’re so cute!” and a bunch of the girls laughed as she translated for her friends. Then I nudged her and said that Hideki was my favorite one, but don’t tell him cuz it might make him angry. And that’s when they told me I was saying his name wrong. Also they laughed.

Oh and also, the very first activity was that the kids had to identify 3 famous people and write who they were on the paper. The pictures were: AKB48, Lady Gaga, and Sakurai Sho (a member of Arashi that at least 80% of the girls at my school are in love with). Now the two kids in front of me kept going “ano hito, dare?” (who is this person?) like, over and over, and they recognized Lady Gaga but not the other two, so after yet another “ano hito, dare?”, I said to them – in this really huffed up, polite Japanese voice “honto ni nihonjin desu ka?” (are you really Japanese?!” and they laughed and the little boy made a serious face and went “honto ni Canada-jin desu ka?” lol! it was so cute.

6^th period was 3-6 with Hasegawa-sensei, Taisei was being his usual class-clown self, but even more than usual. Plus, all the boys were sweating buckets since they were just returning from gym class, and then they all put their sweaters on?!?! I was like WHY are you putting your sweaters on when you are dripping with grossness?!? but they seemed to think I was the weird one… eeeeeh. Japanese people, I don’t get you. Masamitsu was back to his too-cool-for-school self, unfortunately, and pretty much refused to do anything the whole class, except when we played battleship at the end. We made them pair up with the person next to them and Taisei went “eeeeeeeeeehhh?!?! Crap!! If I played against Masamitsu, I’d be sure to win!” which I thought was kinda mean, but they’re like best friends, so whatever. Masamitsu was playing with Yuta, and then at the end, when Yuta won, him and Taisei were talking and I heard “well of course, nobody can lose when playing against Masamitsu”. Aaawww!! No wonder the kid hates English!!

Friday

Thank god it’s Friday, is all I have to say.

I really hate when I have all back-to-back lessons because a) it’s really tiring, and b) I can’t really remember what happened in the earlier classes because they get supplanted and I have terrible memory, so I can’t record anything good for this blog. meh.

First period was regular English with 3-4 and it SUCKED. They have just completely checked out, they are so lazy and they do fuck all. Even Hasegawa sensei looked like she just didn’t care anymore. It’s a bit sad. Ryota refused to play the game because I made them pair up with the person next to them instead of their friends, and then at the end he still got up to come and get a sticker and I was like “HA! I think not!” and he tried it twice! Kid, how dense can you be?! I went over and chatted with him at one point and he informed me that it wasn’t just English he didn’t give a shit about, he just hated school in general. Oh well, now I know.

After that, I had 2-2 with Shigeki, and I can’t really remember what happened except that I was chatting with a bunch of girls before class and they were like “oh… your eyes are blue! Contacts?” and anyways, same old conversation but I told them that everyone in my family except my mom had blue eyes. I said my mom had green eyes and they freaked “green?!?!?” and then one of the girls asked “how about their hair colors?” which I thought was a really funny question. So I said most of them were either light brown or dark blonde… Oh yeah! and then Ayaka ran over and sneakily pulled something out of a bag to give it to me… it was some kind of leaflet/small magazine thing, that was just full of pictures of Shou from Alice Nine. lol. This is the second time she’s given me stuff from them. Actually, he looks really hot in all the pictures so I was a bit giddy! hahaha…

3^rd period was 3-3, and though I was starting to be really dead by that point, I was cheered on by the fact that they were so much better than 3-4. I kept having to go check up on Tomoya at the back of the class cuz he was always pretending to read or pretending to write, and he would basically do it only if I was standing next to him. also had a nice little chat with Koudai about how he looked like a monkey and I was way more crazy than him. fun times.

finally, 4^th period was with 2-5 and since the only funny thing that happened was at the beginning of the class, when me and Mizushima-sensei were gonna do the model reading, the kids were just supposed to listen and not repeat, but after I said the first line and as my JTE was starting the second, this one kid Shinji launched into it in this super loud voice, but he was the only one and he quickly noticed and finished the sentence in slow motion and looked super embarrassed and everybody laughed. He’s a good kid though so it’s not so bad. also, I had them play a memory card game, and normally it takes about 10 minutes tops for any given team to finish finding all the cards, but this one team was SO bad at it, it was just kinda hilarious! I even went and sat with them for a while and they just kept turning the same cards around over and over cuz they’d forgotten they had… Anyways, it was just funny.

And now it’ 5^th period and something’s going on in the gym and I am NOT moving. God, I’m so tired.

Peace out, folks!

Week of September 19th to 23rd

Monday

This week is a little bit retarded. Monday’s a public holiday, and so is Friday. So we only have a 3-day work week.

Tuesday

So I came into work after the long weekend, completely dreading the 5-classes day that was waiting for me, only to look at the schedule board and find out that there are only 2 periods of classes today! and it’s the first 2 in the morning, turned into period 5 and 6, so it means I only have ONE class! I’m so happy, I would do a little happy dance of joy! if I had any energy.

Ok, I am really not at my best today. Class with 3-1 was so-so and part of it was my fault cuz I had no energy. Even though Minami was REALLY into it, kids kept dicking about, the whole listening-to-the-story part went waaaay over their heads, and Seiya was doing his science homework and then getting out of his seat to dance or act up when I wasn’t looking and then looking not-so-guilty every time I caught him doing it. Kouki randomly blurted out “Vanessa’s eyes are so blue!” at one point while we were teaching new words, which lead to a 2 minute OT discussion about my eyes (she is wearing contacts… no she isn’t…) by their little posse. Then at one point I was trying to explain that there was a bit of French in the song, and Shigeki-sensei butted-in that he could speak a little French (yeah right…), and all the kids went “sugoii sensei!” and he’s prattling on about how he studied French in university, and that “J’ai” means “I”, which a) it doesn’t, it means “I have” and b) the French that was on the paper was wrong, cuz I printed it off some lyrics website without checking and just noticed for the first time. So I go “Oh, Shigeki-sensei, you can speak French? I speak French!” and then he goes, to the students “that’s right, Canada people can speak French too”, which was followed by more OT prattling about how it’s my first language, and then of course the kiddies were like “speak French!” but everybody was kinda talking at the same time, and I was a little annoyed, so I just launched into lots and lots of French until everybody stopped talking and was staring at me with big eyes. Then one of the kids went “was that English or French?” and before I can answer, Shigeki-sensei is like “Eigo datta” (it was English) and I just turned around with this “really?! dude, really?!!” look on my face and blurted out in Japanese “furansugo datta!!” (It was French!) and he laughed and was like “oooh, I made a mistake!” but seriously dude, if you’re gonna pretend you speak a language, shouldn’t you at least be able to tell when someone is speaking it? *sigh* I guess that gives you pretty much an idea of how good an English teacher he is……. :/  Yeah. Anyhow, we continued the class with Minami trying to coax me into singing but I wasn’t really feeling it. Then we finished like a minute early so Nichika made me put “GaraGara Go” (Big Bang song) on and then was like “they’re singing in Japanese. I want the Korean one” and I’m like “really, kid? really?!!”

Can I go back to bed now?

Wednesday

Um yeah, so there’s a typhoon? Classes are cancelled. No one told me this might happen although I guess I shoulda known. What I’m pissed about is that apparently everyone was told to bring a bento in case this would happen, and I wasn’t so I have no lunch and I’m stuck here. Might just fuck off at lunch time…

Aah, well, I didn’t. I actually couldn’t have even if I’d wanted to cuz the trains STOPPED. Now I’ve been in Japan for a while and usually they are always going “wah! wah! typhoon! wah! wah!” around this time of the year and all that happens is a bit of heavier-than-usual rain and no one’s the worst off for it. But this time it was actually pretty scary. I’m kinda glad I was at school because it’s a big giant concrete building so it was probably the safest place to be. The wind was blowing crazy hard, and the rain didn’t abate til late in the afternoon. I went out for lunch with some of the other teachers, and when we left it was just raining, but when we came back, the 5 seconds it took for us to get in and out of the car basically left us drenched! 5 seconds! and it only got crazier after that!

Since the trains had stopped, Yuka offered to drive me home after school, and it was kinda lucky for her cuz she got to leave early too. (says she usually leaves at 8pm or so…) It had stopped raining by the time I got home, but the wind was still blowing pretty strong all the way through the night.

Thursday

Well, today was sports day after all! (They had been debating wether or not it would happen all week, since it kept raining and there was the typhoon and all). There was no rain, and even a little bit of sun, but mostly crazy wind and it was really COOL. and by that I’m referring to the weather. Like the typhoon had blown away all the summer heat/humidity. You didn’t see me complain there.

Sports day itself was kind of a bore. After 3 years, this was the 4^th time, and I really don’t care anymore; it’s always the same thing. I spent most of the morning wandering the “cheering area” where the kids who weren’t competing were, snapping pictures and cheering for whatever team. I was wearing a school polo shirt, but it was white and so everyone was like “Vanessa, are you cheering for the white team? no, no! cheer for (insert whatever color here) team!!” there was also the traditional passing around of my sunglasses and snapping pics of the kiddies trying to look cool wearing them, and mostly, nothing that memorable comes to mind.

Oh, Kazuma did disappear at one point, which made me laugh, cuz seriously, that boy… It’s like he’s doing it on purpose just to put the teachers all in a huff. He would also walk over to go cheer for his friends who were in other teams, and got kinda scolded for that. Some of the kids who graduated last year and two years ago also showed up…. mostly yanki boys with bleached hair :p I saw Akito! XD a bit later I saw a few of them chilling with Kazuma… why am I not surprised?

The “cheering” competition started right away in the afternoon, and I was expecting dicking around with the setting up (so I stayed in the staffroom a bit longer after lunch), but there wasn’t any so I missed the first half of the yellow team’s performance, and I was kinda sad because that was Minami’s group and I know they put so much effort into it… from what I saw, they were the best because every other group sucked really bad, except maybe the purple team. Honestly, it’s like they weren’t trying at all. Last year’s performances were all REALLY good, so this year’s were a bit of a disappointment honestly.

I don’t know who won in the end cuz I sneaked off before the end. I didn’t care, and didn’t wanna get cornered about not going to the enkai. Actually, there was a fuck up and no one invited me. Then Mizushima-sensei asked me about it earlier and I told him and he was like “omg, really?!” and I had a feeling that he was gonna try and ask around so I could come (I’m sure nobody would mind), but I was actually pretty happy to not have to go, since I was REALLY tired at the end of the day, and it was an extra 40$ in my wallet. What I think happened is that Asai-sensei (he is the hot teacher who never talks to me) was in charge of asking me if I was coming. He asked me if I wanted the bento for the day, I said no, and he must’ve asked me about the enkai at the same time and I didn’t hear or understand, but he thought I meant no for the enkai as well. I mean, something was obviously lost in translation here, but I’m pretty sure the mistake was on his end cuz he was so fucking nervous about talking to me and getting it over with. meh. Whatever.

If you’re interested in pictures of the kiddies, let me know. also if we are friends on facebook, they weill be up there in an undetermined future.

Week of September 12th to 16th

Monday

1^st period was with 1-7. They cheered a bit when I walked in the class cuz I think they weren’t expecting me. Eitaro and that kid with the bouzu haircut who’s kind of a brat were being SUPER excited! and I was like “it’s Monday, you guys… what the fuck?” lol, but they were so cheerful and cute it really made me smile. Eitaro was like “are we playing a game today?” super expectantly and I’m like “yes” and he goes “yaaaaay!!”. *squeeeee!* class went alright. They’re not up to the grammar point of the game that I prepared (for Yuka’s class) so I half-assed some other game last minute, but they liked it, so ^_-

Then was sentaku with 3-3, first time since summer vacation so we did the Katy Perry song. It went well and some of the girls were trying to tell me that I looked like I lost weight at the beginning of the class, which made me super happy, eheh. I said I wanna lose more and they were like “gambatte! fight-o!” lol. Oh, and during the break before class, Dan and Kota from 3-2 were lurking in the doorway and trying to chat with me, and Kota asked which class I was going to, and I said 3, and he asked “don’t you have class with us today?” and I’m like “no…. are you sad?” and out of nowhere busts out Daisuke, huge token grin on his face, and he goes “no! very very happy!” and I’m laughing and say “cuz you don’t like me right?” and he goes “so!” while the other boys are trying to protest that it’s not true, they love Vanessa. lol. I left them to it cuz class was gonna start.

3^rd period was the same lesson with 3-6, first time again. Two more girls told me that there was “something different about me today” and asked if I lost weight. Now it’s either this outfit, or I really have lost enough weight to show! yay! Class went well too, I’m kinda surprised. Masamitsu was there (with dyed hair! shokku… it was only a tiny bit brown, but it is the seeds of a bad-boy, I’m telling you) and kept dicking around with Taisei, but surprisingly did the lesson work the whole time. Jumpei kept getting up trying to get stickers when he didn’t get a perfect score, and Taisei was like “aww… I think I’ll give me sticker to Jumpei, poor thing”. lol. (He didn’t) At the end of class, Mizushima-sensei told the kids they should check her videos on youtube, and I added (to try and entice them) that some of them were a little bit sexy so I couldn’t show them in class, and he translated that to the kids as being “chotto ecchi” :/   Only in Japan, man… only in Japan…

Tuesday

5 classes today… I will possibly die…

1^st period with 2-2 went well. Very sleepy. Ayaka asked me if I’d bought Alice Nine’s new cd yet… lol, and I had a conversation with the “twins” from 2-1, I told them they don’t look like twins anymore (cuz one of them cut her hair and stopped wearing glasses) and she was like “eeeh…! You’re telling me I looked like her?! You’re insulting me!” lol. that pair reminds me of a duo of stand-up comics… they’re hilarious!

In 2-1, they were especially well-behaved today… well except for Ayumu who kept pulling his (freakishly long) tongue at me, and his little friend Adachi next to him who couldn’t stand still… Ayumu had totally gelled up his hair this morning (it was standing up and was hard if I touched it) and when I asked him about it he was like “No! No gel! No wax!” yeah sure, bucko… At the end of the class, we were playing bingo and there was about 1 minute left but we’d finished all “5 chances” and Rei was like “lasto! one more!” and I was like “no, no…” and they kept asking and so I told them “maybe if you beg me…” and so the teacher translated “beg” and they were like “onegai! please!” and I’m like “no, no, you gotta get on your knees” and he went “eeeh!!” like he wasn’t gonna do it, and the whole class laughed. In the the end, Ayumu got up from his seat and came to kneel down in front of me to ask “please, one more!” and I just laughed and said ok. mwahaha…

On the way back to the staffroom, I ran into Daisuke who was like “oh no, we have sentaku later!” and his friends are like “why is he saying that?” (in Japanese) so I say it’s because Daisuke doesn’t like me and one of them goes “he crazy boy”. Then, Imari came up and (noticing my pigtails) went “Vanessa mata ime-change?” (you changed your image again?) and so I said “yes! everyday ime-change!” and he nodded thoughtfully and mumbled to his friend “I wonder what it’s gonna be like tomorrow..” lol!

2-3 went well, they went a bit crazy at the end of the game though, but in a good way. Basically they had to ask the same question to 11 people and then I would give a sticker to the first 10 people to finish… but! they had to have no mistakes on their paper… Now, every single person had at least ONE tiny little mistake so I’d make them go back to correct it, and it turned into a contest of who was gonna have a perfect paper and get the sticker. lol. Every time I would go “spelling mistake!” or “listened-ED!” or “it’s not basketbool” the whole class would just go up in a collective “oooh!” and cheer… lol.

4^th period was 3-2. They were really less than enthusiastic about the song, Dan and Kota were absent, and Daisuke spent the whole time making little disses at me. Then he was like “please give me sticker!” and I was like “no way! you keep saying bad things to me!” and he kept on “please please!” so I said “ok, you have to say “Vanessa, I love you!”” and he went “nooooo!!”. lol. Anyways, we carried on, and then later on, he waves me over and tries to explain that he CAN’T say that, can I please make him say something else. and by that point of course I’ve figured out that the girl sitting next to him (Ayano) is his girlfriend and so I asked “oh, you don’t love me… do you love her?” and he super confidently answered “YES!” while she went “no, no, no…” and he went “eeeeh?!” to her. Seriously. Cutest thing ever. He still didn’t get a sticker though.

6^th period was sentaku with 3-1, and mostly it was just Shigeki-sensei dicking around with the students. I figured it was completely pointless to try and stop him from translating everything I say (even though it’s a listening activity… :/ ) so I just let him prattle on… My usual little posse was genki as usual, but a bunch of kids were nodding off and Seiya was just being useless not doing anything and I went over a bunch of times to try and coax him to work but it didn’t really work. One time I was pointing at the song lyrics as they went to try and get him to follow, and he saw my nails and went “sugoi tsume!” and then he tried to get everyone near him to look at my nails and then giggled to himself “nanka, gyaru-teki na~” (it looks really gyaru) which gave me an inner giggle myself. At the end of class there were about 7 minutes left and Shigeki gave them “free time” and Minami used it to distribute some home-made (with tin foil) daggers for their cheering dance for the sports festival. “We are pirates!” she told me. So of course I stole one and started play-fighting with Kouki. :p I asked them who had designed their dance and they said Nichika and Minami, and then she added that they were also gonna do a dance performance at the chorus contest. Which lead to the next question “Vanessa, are you gonna sing this year?” I said I didn’t know, but I’m pretty sure I won’t since I haven’t been asked and it would be too last minute for now, I guess. The last two years, I sang (one time a whole song, and one time just a one line solo) but the kids basically go crazy when I do and treat me like a rock star for the next two weeks. Honestly, the attention-whore in me wishes I could, but it’s kind of a bother as well…

Wednesday

Aaah, I forgot to write today… everything went fine. Had 3 classes and a really busy afternoon planning my Lady Gaga lessons for tomorrow… The only funny bits were Imari popping in when I was getting coffee and going “mata ime-change?” with a cute little grin, and two little 1^st year girls going “oshare, Vanessa” as I walked out of school, putting my sunglasses on. Then they went “bye bye, oshare Vanessa!” waving me away. Cutest thing ever. (“oshare” means trendy or fashionable)

Thursday

Get ready for a looooong day! 5 classes! God, I hate this fucking constant A-week schedule!!!

1^st period with 3-5… yaaay! My Lady Gaga lesson went down really well! ^_^ Well, that’s to be expected, but with these kiddies, you never know… The funniest part was definitely Shigeki-sensei perving over the half-naked pictures of miss G. Now he is going on and on to the other English teacher about how it’s the best song he’s ever heard… lol.

3^rd period was 2-4 and Shigeki-sensei ran way over his time, so mostly I just stood at the back of the class discussing various pointless things with Masaya. He wasn’t being too much of a dick today. I told him him he had really big eyebrows, and then he launched into this speech about how his eyelashes were too long, and it really wasn’t cool for a boy to have long eyelashes… lol.

4^th period with 3-4 SUCKED. Mizushima-sensei spent the first 10 minutes of class trying to fix one of the fans (and failed) and I couldn’t start the lesson before he was done because of course all the kids were staring at him. They enjoyed the song, but most of them didn’t even try to follow the words, which pissed me off. Ryota was making a show of himself at the back of the class, dancing along to the music, which was both hilarious and infuriating. I told him that he should come and dance for us at the front of the class and he was like “no, no, no!” and stopped… for like 20 seconds.

5^th period was 1-5… these kids are really good and the vibe of the class is so nice… when I walked in, Akane and the girl in front of her where going “Vanessa kawaii! cute! cute! very cute!” and then they tried to get the boy in front, Mao, to say that I was very cute and he got super embarrassed which was so funny. Then, Aoshima-sensei walked into the class during the silent minute (mokuso) and there was this stray bits of hair that was standing straight on his head, and I tried to tell him before the kids opened their eyes, but then the bell rang and I couldn’t. of course, as soon as they opened their eyes, they all noticed it and started giggling, which means that of course I started giggling too and then couldn’t even look at him, I had to walk off a bit or I would burst into uncontrollable giggles. See, the thing that makes it even funnier is that he wears a toupet, so… lol. I think he must’ve heard one of the kids say what was wrong though because the next time I turned around, his hair was back in order. eheh…

Last period of the day was 2-6, my first time with them in ages. Went great of course, this kid Yuya kept stealing these shy glances at me and then smiling. He is too cute. The funny thing is that he used to be a BRAT in first year… now he apparently has a crush on me. He also used to wear glasses and now has contacts… coincidence? Another funny thing, although it’s not something that happened, but just something that noticed. This other boy (I forgot his name) used to have these big giant chubby cheeks, and now, he came back from summer vacation and they’re gone! His face completely smoothed out and he is starting to look like a young man! It’s hilarious because it’s hugely noticeable since I haven’t seen him in nearly 2 months… aaaah! My babies are growing up!!

Also, on my way out, I ran into the radio kids and Imari was like “bye bye Vanessa!” and I so I said bye and asked him “today, ime-change?” and he paused, looked me up and down and went “no ime-change”. lol!

Friday

First period and second period with 1-6 and 1-4 went fine but nothing too entertaining happened, and I was soooo sleepy.

During the break I ran into Daisuke on the stairs, and he stopped, waved me over and went “saigo no kyoku…. last song… high standard” and he’s gesturing with his hands above his head. “like, like!” and it was kinda confusing, but I basically understood that he was trying to tell me that he’d liked the last song we did in class together (Adele). I thought it was cute because at the end of the class, when I asked the kids if they liked the song, he went “no! Avril Lavigne only!” and I scolded him telling him he was looking at the world with blinders on and he was like “no! Looking only one way is ok!! Avril Lavigne only!!” lol. cutey pie.

Then, like 5 minutes before the end of the break, Mizushima-sensei came to ask me if it was okay to do one of the music lessons with 2-5 (it’s his homeroom class) and I said sure and prepped the Justin Bieber lesson since it’s the easiest. The English level mostly went way over their heads (as expected) but they’re a good class so they did well, and everybody liked the song. Well, except for Atsuya who was just kinda sitting there twiddling his pencil, looking like a deer in headlights whenever I said anything in English… lol.

Week of September 5th to 9th

Monday

Due to tests, I ended up having only one class today, 1^st period with 1-7. Nothing much happened except that Aoshima-sensei super randomly told me that I could leave the classroom after I was done playing my game… I mean, I think he doesn’t get the “assistant” part of ALT, so I was like “no, no, it’s fine” and kinda just wandered around watching the kids for the rest of the class. And it was as I was standing at the back of the class contemplating life, that I noticed this one kid, who sits at the back of his row, that Yuka told me about on the day of the volleyball game. This boy has been absent for most of the 1^st semester. She said he was being bullied. I wondered why cuz he’s really cute and doesn’t seem “challenged” in any way, and then she told me : “he thinks he’s a girl”. I was just kinda floored. You mean to tell me these teachers have this kind of information, and they basically do nothing about it? I’m surprised they even acknowledge it at all. Anyways, so I was staring at that boy, and that’s when I noticed… he was wearing a bra under his shirt. :/ I guess Yuka wasn’t pulling my leg. It just kinda blew my mind though. My heart goes out to him so much, and I really wish I could do something, to show him that I like him or I’m there for him or whatever, but I really have no idea…. deep thoughts for Monday morning, first period…

Tuesday

Busy day today!

First period with 2-2 went well. Nothing too much to report. Oh! But Ayaka (the girl who loves Nightmare) came up to me with a little plastic bag after class and went “present for you”. Inside the bag was an Alice Nine poster, and a book about Saga (A9 member)… it was so random and sweet and cute! I don’t like Saga (and the book is all in Japanese) but I was really touched!

Then I had class with 2-1 right after and all my brats were super loveable. Ayumu spent the whole class trying to make me crack up from across the room, Rei spent most of the class going “I speak English! I don’t speak Japanese! I no Japanese!” and I my kid who has LOTS of white hair dyed it black over the course of the summer vacation. Everybody was surprisingly fun and well behaved and it was so enjoyable.

Then I was supposed to have class with 2-3 but Mizushima-sensei said not to come, and I was really happy cuz it meant I could have a break.

4^th period was sentaku with 3-2 and it went so well, they are so awesome. I love them. I made them do the aisatsu 3 times though because when I went “hello!” they kept replying this super weak, wimpy “hello…” back to me… I think they enjoyed the song, but they also told me that Katy Perry was not cute, and confirmed to me that really, they didn’t like foreign girls unless they were blonde… *sigh* I actually said that “blonde hair good? black hair bad?” and they nodded. *shakes head* Dan and Kota were really funny and kept trying to ask me questions in English (most kids don’t bother and will just ask in Japanese) and Ayumi was being really silly and cute too. oh, and everyone loved my nails :p At the end of class, after aisatsu, I asked Daisuke “why are you guys so bad at aisatsu today?” and he looks at me with this huge grin and goes “it’s because we don’t like Vanessa!” and I went “eeeeh!!!” but kinda squealed it and some girls went “chou kawaiisou!” and of course I knew he was kidding and I went “but you guys are my favorite!” pretending tears, and he went “too bad! We very very don’t like Vanessa!” grinning like a fool. Brat.

Oh, and in the hallway, Ayumi was going around asking another teacher if he liked Evangelion, and then she just went bonkers when I said I could sing the Evangelion song. She went “omg! omg! you like Evangelion?! omg! xxx is so cool! omg! she likes evangelion! omg! omg!” (in Japanese) really, like so freakin hyper I couldn’t even get a word in. lol. tried to tell her that I saw the anime once, years ago, but it didn’t really register and she went off bouncing happily. LOL.

6^th period with 3-1 went awesome, which made me so happy, although – again – I was pretty much teaching just to the little posse of Nichika, Kouki, Minami… but they were so into it. Nichika must’ve eaten some sugar at lunch because he was SO freakin hyper… he even busted into a couple of body-builder muscle-showing moves completely randomly at one point, and the kids kept giggling because I was always laughing at him. Nao actually knew Katy Perry, finally! Oh and Minami as well… and they said she was cute, so I was happy. Also for pretty much the first time I had a positive reaction to the song, which made me happy too. Shigeki-sensei also enjoyed himself, he was totally perving over the pictures (which the kids totally teased him for) and told me he really enjoyed the song. haha.

Wednesday

1^st period with 1-1 went well. we played the quiz game again and they were much better at it than the other class (answering the questions really easily) and there was this one team where every time they picked the color for the question they would ask this one kid to say it, and everyone would just giggle cuz he would say “bu-buuu” instead of “blue” and “pi-n-kuuu” for pink, etc. it was super cute. Poor kid though. He’s one of those ones that still look like they’re in elementary school so they’re adorable.

On my way back to the staffroom I ran into Yuka and Nami (3-1) and they spent like 5 minutes explaining to me (using Japanese I didn’t understand) that they could see the tan lines from my socks on my legs… lol. I’m wearing a skirt today.

3^rd period was the same lesson with 1-3, and man, what a bunch of zombies! It took twice as long as any other class because it took them all ages to select a card color for their questions, and even longer to answer the damn questions! It was ridiculous. Even Aoshima-sensei told them in their “daily class comment” that they were much to slow and doing things today. lol.

4^th period was with 1-2, which went much better. They were so good and fast at answering the questions that they went through the whole deck of cards! They were all cracking up when the name “Hidetoshi” came up in one of the examples… the sentence was “My father’s name is Hidetoshi” an one kid went like “yeah, it’s a Showa name…” (Showa is the period of the emperor before the current one… everyone older than 23 was born in the showa period, so indeed, it would be a name their fathers would be likely to have) anyways, I thought it was such a random/smart comment that it cracked me up. Good kiddies!

Thursday

5 classes today!  がんばります！

1^st period was music lesson with 3-5. Again. This month, because of sports day, every week is A-week schedule, which means that I have sentaku every week. So I had to plan a new music lesson already. This time I’m doing “Rolling in the deep” by Adele. As far as I know, she isn’t even known at all in Japan, and thus my kids have no idea who she is. The style is also a bit different than usual, and I was worried that they wouldn’t dig it at all but I thought I should show a variety of styles too. Anyways, this class, which were right proper zombies when I did my Katy Perry lesson last week, really liked the song!! (wtf?!) A bunch of them were bobbing their heads along, even Shigeki-sensei was trying to sing along at one point (which cracked me up) and I was requested to play it a 3^rd time so they could try extra hard to find the missing words. I’ve never seen such enthusiasm from the class that my JTE just dubbed “the no reaction class”. lol.

3^rd period was 2-4 and Masaya showed me how much he had missed me by being his usual annoying self… also he grew a mullet over the summer :/ everyone participated in doing the activity well though, even the little group of too-cool-for-school kids who sit on the right side of the class, so I was happy.

4^th period with 3-4 was kinda blah. They definitely didn’t enjoy the song as much as 3-5, but whatever. I was kinda bummed that even Shiomi-kun was passed out on his desk,　cuz he’s usually the only one spouting answers at me. Oh well. I think they are being worked really hard for the stupid sports day, so I’ll forgive them…

During lunch break, Mamiko-sensei asked me to help her with the English in Shione’s diary. As I corrected it she commented on my nails being so cute. This is what I mean when I say people are kinda clueless here… I’ve had them on for 3 weeks and it’s the first time anyone’s said anything :p I know Hasegawa-sensei’s noticed them though cuz she’s given me “the eye” when I pointed stuff out to her on a paper, but as long as she doesn’t actually say anything out loud, then we’re good :p

5^th period was with 1-5 and they clapped and cheered when I entered the classroom… I think it’s cuz they thought they wouldn’t have a test (they still did, after my game :p) but still, how can you not feel loved? ;p They really got into the game, which made me really happy. One of my question cards was “this is my father, _____ name is Hidetoshi”, and Akane was in tears laughing because that’s actually her father’s name. :p At the end of class, two little girls came chasing me down the hall to have a look at my nails. lol.

6^th period was supposed to be class with 2-6, but Mizushima-sensei told me not to go again. I think he’s starting to take some serious liberties about when he says that, but at the same time, on a day like today where I am dead on my feet already, I really can’t complain about being given a free period. Oh well.

Friday

It’s Friday, yay! I have 3 morning classes today and if I can get through them it will be the weekend!

1^st period with 1-6 went well. We did the quiz game and they finished all the cards too. Then I went over to 1-4 for the next period and I saw Akira and Hideki dicking around by the water fountain. Hideki is the little one who always looks grumpy… he is tooooo cute! XD Anyways, they were like “oh it’s Vanessa today…” and said hello and then Hideki cocked his head at me and went “nanka, dekai!” (which is really vague and means “kinda big”) and his friend cracked up and I assumed he meant I was tall so I patted him on the head and went “nanka, chicchai” (kinda small) and his friend just pissed himself laughing. After more consideration, I think he may have been referring to my boobs… :/  Anyhow, we had the exact same lesson as the class before and it went well. There was this one team (team no.2) with this really shy kid called Tatsuki, and every time they had to answer a question, they made him answer and he would just take a deep breath and say it really seriously… cutest thing ever. :p

4^th period with 2-5 went well. They were such little troopers and didn’t cheat at all during the game. I commented on it to Mizushima-sensei and he said, “Oh? Which classes cheat?” and I said I couldn’t really remember but in Shigeki sensei’s class they tend to speak more Japanese cuz he’s way more relaxed, and he said “yeah, he’s an old man.. he’s too kind to the students…” lol!

And now… freedom!!

week of august 29th to September 2nd

Wednesday

Today is the first day back to school. There was the “opening ceremony” in the gym this morning, but it was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that Kazuma went “missing” again (i.e. he was ditching) and then there was an earthquake drill and then the kiddies went home while the teachers had meetings in the afternoon.

Thursday

Today is the first official day of school. On my way in, I heard a mysterious “good morning Vanessa!” and turned around and nobody was there. It was a bit weird, but since the entrance is right next the broadcast room, and that I think I recognized Imari’s voice, it just made me giggle and I replied “good morning!” to my invisible student :p

Oooooh man, first class with 3-5 bombed horribly. I thought they might be a little vedge after summer vacation, which is why I prepared a song by Katy Perry instead of some obscure Canadian band, and not only did they have no idea who she was, but the boys all told me they didn’t think she was hot. wtf?! You could hear flies buzzing the whole time, especially when I asked a question, and only Kiyo half-tried at anything, and I kept picking on Ryohei cuz he was right at the front, next to me. Oh yeah, and Kazuma slept from bell to bell :/ Actually, when I showed up to class, Hasegawa sensei was scolding him… eh. Hopefully next one will be better!

Ok, so 3-4 was actually much better, THANKGOD!! They were still clueless and I was still pretty much only teaching to Shiomi-kun (he’s the only one who has any idea what I’m saying at any time…) but at least they showed a bit more enthusiasm than 3-5, even if a few of them were falling asleep by the end of the song… I blame it on the return from the holiday and hopefully it’ll be better next week.

I couldn’t reach Aoshima-sensei today, or yesterday, so I just went to see him now, 10 minutes before class to ask him if he wanted me to come. He said he’d forgotten we had class together, so to please not come. Eheh, some things are still the same, I guess. It’s kinda funny tough cuz on my regular Thursday schedule, I’m supposed to be having 5 classes. I ended up having only 2… oh well!!

Friday!!

Ok, I’m in a super mood this Friday!

Showed up to school to an empty, airconed staffroom… mysterious, but I think it’s just the weekly meeting they usually have on Mondays that’s going on in the gym right now… not bothered enough to go check it out. Got only one class today cuz of post-vacation tests…

Aoooo.... apparently I don't have any classes today after all :( Mizushima-sensei said I didn’t need to come because he was just giving back test results… eh… I was kinda looking forward to seeing the 2nd year kiddies. Oh well.

Happy Friday!

Summer Happenings

So. it’s summer vacation now. which means, no classes and I’ve sitting on my ass all day for the last month or so. There are some kids at school, here for club activities, but not that many, so chance/funny encounters are kinda rare, and therefore there’s not too much to say.

Wednesday july 27^th

lol. Imari and dan just came over to ask me for my ipod speaker… (I use it to play the songs for my music lessons cuz it’s easier than burning cds) I guess they’re going to use it to play music to unbore themselves while they count bellmarks or something… still. It was kinda random and funny :p

lol. And now (2hrs later) Dan and Kota have just returned it. Dan said “thank you very much”, and then “very much” again, with a little bow, 3 more times while Kota giggled. I think they were looking for an excuse to stay here but had nothing to say. lol.

Friday july 29^th

I left about an hour early to go drop some stuff off at the BoE on Friday afternoon. School was really quiet, with no students and only about 3 other teachers in the whole school. So behold my surprise when, as I almost reach the teachers’ shoe locker room, I hear my name being screamed out and suddenly get attacked by a big yellow blob of human. I looked down at who was the little creature hugging me fiercely, and lo-and-behold, it was Shinobu! Honestly, I should’ve known because that was pretty much her exact behavior when she was still a student here. I realized that she’d popped out of the nurse’s office as Ayaka soon followed suit, and another girl whose name I can’t remember cuz I am a bad teacher. Only Ayaka was wearing a school uniform and the other two wore casual clothes, Shinobu’s being very very yellow. lol. She looked so cute and had cut her hair. They all had pretty much the same short chipped-bob haircut. we chatted a bit but I had to say goodbye quickly or I was gonna miss my train. As I was about to go, Shinobu grabbed my hand and looked at the inside of it. I had scribbled “BoE” on the inside to remind myself to go and explained to her what it meant. She showed my hand to Ayaka and went (in Japanese) “I thought it said BoA”. lol. we said goodbye and I was like “please come see me again” and Shinobu just stared at me blankly and looked to Ayaka and I shook my head and said “mata kite kudasai!” and Shinobu went “hai!!” and gave me a big serious bow. lol. Love that kid.

August 4^th

Atsuya #2 (I have 2 favorite Atsuyas in 2^nd grade… one is this genki little over achiever, and the other one is dumb as shit, but highly entertaining. This is the second one) is in the staffroom now. I think he’s been forced to do his history homework or something. He’s been sitting at the empty desk his front of me, twiddling his pen, tapping his fingers on the desk and alternatingly starring into space. lol. When he catches me looking at him, he gives me this dumb embarrassed grin and I just giggle. lol. Can’t help it, he’s just funny even to just look at, eheh.

August 5^th

awww… on my way out after school, I ran into Aoi (chibikko… last year’s speech contest kid) and her friend at the station. She was all dolled-up and dressed up super cute and had already started growing from a little kid into a woman. When she saw me and recognized me, she jumped into my arms and I just had such an inner “aaaaaawwww!” moment. She and her friend had gone shopping at AEON and now were waiting for her mom to pick them up. She seemed really happy. I couldn’t talk much cuz the train was coming soon, but I was so happy to see her ^_^

August 9^th

This morning on my way to school, some random lady doing her jogging (actually, I’ve seen her around before) stopped and started chatting to me. At first I thought she was just saying “good morning”, but no, she wanted to chat. She asked me if I was the English teacher (we were very near the school) and I said yes and she said I was very “nihongo jouzu” and asked where I was from, and then started babbling about how young and pretty I was. lol. She thought I was 21, bless her little soul. Oh well, that was an interesting encounter.

Now I get to school and Masaki – this tiny delicate ninensei boy – is sitting at the desk in front of me SEWING. lol. I’m guessing it’s a home-ec summer project, but it’s still rather funny. He’s concentrating so hard!! kawaii!!!

August 11^th

Today was weird. First, all the teachers had some special meetings somewhere outside of school, so the staffroom was COMPLETELY empty, except for Kyoto-sensei and the lunch lady and I all morning. Then in the afternoon, there was a stupid inter-school (with the two elementaries affiliated with our school) volleyball tournament for the teachers. In honor of that, all the lady teachers were going to lunch together. Now, I woulda been FINE just eating my diet-proof bento in the lonely staffroom and stay there all afternoon, reading a book, but no. Earlier in the week, Hasegawa sensei came over and asked me if I wanted to come to the v-ball game. In this case “asked” means “you can’t say no”. So of course I said sure and spent the rest of the week dreading it. She said I didn’t have to play but of course that didn’t happen either. while I was there, Koucho-sensei (the principal) very nearly physically forced me to play 2 GAMES… on the “shitty players side” (there were 2 fields). Lucky for me, the other team sucked even more than we did and kept giving us points by just sending their ball into the net, so it didn’t really involve too much actual physical activity. :p

Afterwards me and Yuka went for coffee downtown and we ran into Daisuke and his friends. His friends were from another school cuz I didn’t know them, and they were all staring at me like I was a crazy person as I walked over and snapped my fingers in Daisuke’s face for him to look up (he was fiddling with his bag or something). When he saw me he went “HEEEY!” and flashed his trademark huge smile at me. I asked him what he was doing here and he said he was doing something for a Visa (didn’t really understand) cuz he was going to Taiwan. I knew some of the kids from the baseball club were going so I said “oooh!” and he went (in English) “Yes! Because, I am very very good baseball player!” lol. So I gave him a high-five and wished him luck and we left. As we were walking off, Yuka was laughing at his whole behavior and English usage. She doesn’t know him cuz she teaches first grade only. She went “yeah, you’re lucky. Students love you” :p

Other than that, nothing much happened besides me teaching this year’s speech contest kid every other day. She has the most boring personality ever, and never says anything even when I try to initiate conversation. eh. I’m glad that’s over!