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!

week of July 11th to 15th

Monday

1-7 went alright. funniest thing that I can remember that happened was, during the “running game” (I have 2 kids go against each other and they have to run to the board and circle the word I say), this kid Naoki, who’s a little bit “off”, just yelled out this like… battle cry or something, as he ran to the board, left and right looking for the good word, and he still ended up losing to the other kid. lol. Everyone was laughing. It was pretty funny.

Then I had Sentaku-class with 3-3 which was ok, just before I walked into class, I saw Ryouga who was talking to a friend and I went “Ryouga-chan! You’re not crazy today!” and went “yeah… tired!” and I said “good boy!” and left him to his friends teasing him cuz I had called him “-chan”. I love using that on my boys…. demeaning their masculinity is the funniest thing. eheh. Anyways, class went fine but we finished early and Shigeki-sensei just let them dick-around for like 20 minutes. Oh, one funny thing, during the song, at one point, I turned around and saw Shigeki-sensei trying to sing along and shaking his hips to the beat. Funniest. Thing. Ever. (he’s like 60)

After that I had the same lesson with 3-6, and they were just dead. I could get no reaction out of them, at all. Even Taisei was super quiet. meh. I know it’s hot, kids, but come on! Afterwards I had them play Pictionary with the left-over time, and they woke up a bit, but still. meh.

Back in the staffroom, I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone had turned the aircon down to 25C!! Technically, they’re not “allowed”. There’s no actual rule, but most places never put it any lower than 27C….

After school I ran into Nao and ended up walking with her all the way to the station. She’s so cute! and her English is getting really good ^_^ she told me she hadn’t been chosen for the speech contest (which of course, I already knew) and was a bit bummed, but she said that now she was gonna try and get a solo for the chorus contest in the fall. Good for her! She also said that she did choir outside of school, and when I asked what she was gonna do for summer vacation, she said “study!” lol. Then, randomly, as we’d almost reached the station, she went “aaah, I want a boyfriend!” and I said “me too!” and then asked her if there was a boy she fancied at school and she giggled and nodded, but then she wouldn’t tell me who he was because she was embarrassed and “he’s not cool”. eheh.

Tuesday

Aaah man, I’m so tired. 5 classes today and it’s SO hot. I have just finished my 4 morning classes, had lunch and finally can sit down. My feet actually hurt. I can’t remember last time that happened *sigh*

First period with 2-2 was a bit of a bore and nothing exciting happened. Then during 2^nd period with 2-1, the mini-gyaruo and the kid with grey hair kept giggling at me from across the room. Then, when I came over, grey-haired boy rushed to cover something he was drawing in his book. Probably something pornish again. I tried to get him to show it to me, but to no avail. At one point, I squat down beside him do ask him something and saw his gaze very unsubtly shift down into my cleavage. Eeeh… then he asked me “sensei… sonna fuku, suki?” (lit: teacher like these clothes) and I was really confused… did he mean do I like my clothes? does he like my clothes?” and so I’m like “…… yes?” and him and his friend just kinda go “huh….” wtf. That was weird. This is not the first time I’ve worn this shirt!! wtf?! Although I get the feeling that this class is gonna be the return of the pervs, version 2.0! lol.

Then I did the same lesson again with 2-3, and it was really fun, and after that I had sentaku class with 3-2. At the beginning of class Daisuke and Kota and Dan and Imari (you know, the 3-2 boy posse) came over and started chatting random bullshit at me that I forgot… I just remember that I heard Dan tell Daisuke that he should tell me that I had big boobs. Daisuke shook his head and went “Ero, ero! He is ero!!” lol (it means he’s a perv or something) and I just laughed and went, “oh, are you?” and he said “no, no, no!” lol. I said “you’re a good boy?” and he said “yes!” and flashed me his huge grin. Aww, I have no trouble believing him. Then Dan came back and pointed to some random kid and went “he is ero. number 1!” and I said “in this class?” and they all chimed, “yes!”, followed by “this class! this school! all over the world!!” in English. lol. The lesson itself was pretty uneventful though.

Eh, I thought 3-1 class was gonna be ok, but they were just dead, and who can blame them, really? 6^th period in this heat? Anyhow, when I was done with my lesson, there was about 20 minutes left and Shigeki-sensei told them they could do homework or whatever, and Kouki said “can we have some music?” which made me smile, but I put some on for them. After a while, Nichika, Seiya and some other boys came over to fuss over my ipod and ooh-ed and aah-ed cuz I had Big Bang songs on there. Apparently Nichika is a big Big Bang fan. Minami was like, “doesn’t he look like D-lite?” and I was like “huh?” (trying to remember which one D-Lite is, cuz honestly, besides G-Dragon and T.O.P. I really don’t know their names) and Kouki goes “Nichika, smile!” and he just kinda grinned, flashing his giant white teeth and I go “omg! He does!” lol. He’s way skinnier though… they went through about all the songs from them on the ipod, and then found the ones from the Korean drama “you’re beautiful” and were super surprised that I had them. Minami asked me which boy from the drama I thought was the hottest, but I’ve watched it almost a year ago so I really don’t remember, so I said “all of them!” later on, true to herself, Minami just randomly asked me if I drank alcohol. (I answered “yes”, cuz what else was I gonna say, really?) and then she asked me if I was “strong” (which is a question you always get from Japanese people… it refers to how much booze you can handle before getting drunk) and I said so-so. She said I must be strong cuz I was gaijin. lol. Then the bell rang. mwaha.

Wednesday

So apparently, from today until the end of the semester, we only have shortened classes, and only in the morning. That would be nice if it meant that I actually had less classes, but most my classes are in the morning anyways so it doesn’t really change anything.

I had 1-1 first period and all went well. The end of the lesson was having the kids practice “I don’t like”, which I enjoyed very much cuz I like bitching about stuff. On the way to class, I ran into a bunch of other kids heading to music class, and of course was followed by a chorus of “hello”s, except for Genki, who decided it would be funny to go “Nihao!” at me. He did it on the way back too. lol.

I guess I was having a bad day that day, cuz I totally forgot to write about the two other classes I had. oh well.

Thursday

When I showed up to class with 3-5, Ryohei had like a crown of little pine needles in his hair. wtf. Everybody was giggling at him and I told him he looked like a forest princess and he went “hai. sou desu” (that’s right). lol. He kept them in for the WHOLE class and only took them off at the end. lol.

When I walked into 1-5 second period, all the kids started squealing like excited little piglets. They were like “Vanessa, since you’re here, does it mean we’re not having a test?!?!” and indeed, apparently that’s what it meant. But I told them at the beginning of class that since they weren’t having a test, it meant they had to be “super super genki” and that cracked them up.

On the way to 3-4, these two girls started chatting with me and were really hilarious, even though the bell was gonna ring soon, they kept talking and talking… lol. one of them told me that my shirt was very sexy, and I was like “eh?” basically, there is a patch of see-through lace on the top back of my shirt… and I’m wearing a cami under… how is that sexy???

Anyhow, I was expecting class with 3-4 to be a pain, but unexpectedly, it went really well. Because they somehow got an extra lesson over all the other classes, I didn’t wanna prepare a whole other music lesson, so I thought we were just gonna play games. first I had them play bingo with all the new words we learned from the previous songs (on 30, they remembered the meaning of about 4…. :/) and after that, we played Pictionary and it was hilarious because all the “naughty” boys got REALLY into it, and at the end, I made this one question worth 3 points, and of course everybody’s hand shot off at the same time, and even the bell had rung and nobody cared. And Bad Ryota was yelling like a crazy person “me! me!” so I chose him but I told everyone on his team “you can’t help him!!” and so everybody got quiet and he yelled triumphantly “COOKING!!” while pointing at me (which was the correct answer) and I laughed and the 3 points bonus made their team win. Never seen anybody that happy to get a sticker. lol.

Friday

Finally it’s Friday! Man, I’m so tired this morning. But my first two periods went well and there’s only one more to go. During first period with 1-6, Yuka was having them practice “what do you drink?” and they had to answer “I drink ______” and one kid was like “nama biru!” (beer) lol. After that, every other kid came up with every kind of alcohol in the book… only in Japan… lol.

After class I went straight to 1-4 classroom, cuz the 1nensei building is apart from the rest of the school and there’s no point going back to the staffroom for 2 minutes and then going back there, but because I was really tired, I sat down at the teacher’s desk kinda slumped and started doodling on a paper. This one kid, who is a little bit weird (but has somehow taken a liking to me) comes over and goes “kyou, nanka, genki nai yo ne” (you aren’t feeling well today aren’t you?) and I just thought it was the cutest thing. I told him I was just very sleepy and he nodded and left. lol. Then during the rest of the class, whenever some kids would notice the little doodle I’d left on the desk, they would go “hey, who drew this?” and another kid would go “Vanessa did” and the other kid would go “chou umai jan!” (it’s really good!) which made me giggle, because I’m really not that good at drawing, but it’s always nice to hear. eheh.

During 4^th period, I did fortune-telling with 2-5, and nearly ALL the fortunes involved Asai-sensei in some way, which made the whole thing hilarious. I was like “wow, he’s really popular!” til Mizushima-sensei told me he was their homeroom teacher… :p Oh well, it could’ve happened. I still think he’s hot :p

During lunchtime I eat lunch in the staffroom at my desk. I usually read a book while I eat. Just before I was about to start eating, Taisei (from 3-6) and that kid with the floppy hair walked in and started talking with Yabe-sensei. When they turned to leave they looked at me, Taisei went “nani kore?”, babbled some more stuff that I didn’t really understand, and then left, or tried to leave, as Yabe-sensei told them they should try and talk to me in English and they were like “no no no… we’re not good at English!” (in Japanese) and I’m like “what are you talking about? You’re like the best one in your class!” and Yabe said “really?” and then forced them to come back. Taisei walked up “shyly” (which was hilarious considering I know he’s not shy at all” and went “what’s this?” pointing at my book. I gave it to him and he went “suge” (wow) a few times, flipped it over, tried to read a few words from it and gave it back to me shaking his head. I told him “it’s easy English” (cuz it was a young-adult book) and he went “oh?” and then he said thank you and they left. lol.

week of July 4th to 8th

Monday

urgh. Today. I feel like I’m sitting in a pool. Fully clothed. Except the water is warm and it’s not fun. I am seriously going to start complaining LOUDLY about this lack of aircon. It’s just inhumane. Also, I really don’t wanna be here this morning, for a slew of reasons, and I am grumpy as fuck. This is gonna be a FUN day. :(

1^st period sucked. Well, it was alright actually, but I was just in such a cranky mood that didn’t leave the whole time even though kids were fine. One funny thing at the end was, the kids were practicing reading bits of the book, and one of the dialogues was “what’s this? It’s a shogi board”. So I was wandering around, pointing to kids and going “what’s this?” and I did it to this one kid (pointed to him and went “what’s this?”) and he looked at me and went “it’s God”. lol. You’re alright, kid. You’re alright.

Then second period with 2-4 put me in a better mood. they had changed the seating arrangements and Masaya was now sitting way at the back in the middle row, and he was oddly well-behaved and sweet… well, til the end of the class when he was like “Vanessa, you got fat!” and poked me in the belly, and I replied “I KNOW!! Stop telling me! You’re gonna make me cry!” and his face dropped (I think he only understood the word “cry”) and he was like “don’t mind! don’t mind!” (it’s japanglish for “it doesn’t matter” or “don’t worry about it”) aaah, silly boy. Then he said I should diet (and I told him I already was) and he told me that we should practice for undoukai (sports day) together. lol. That made me laugh.

Then I had class with 3-1, and they were all dead, and my activity bombed cuz it was too easy and I totally didn’t care. Luckily, Hasegawa-sensei saved me and made it a bit more interesting. Before class, the girls were talking together and they came over and started asking me if I knew any scary stories. I said I didn’t and Nao was like “don’t you have any scary stories in Canada??” and I said that we did but I couldn’t remember any. I also told them they should watch SUPERNATURAL. Because it was full of scary stories, AND hot men. lol.

Tuesday

aircon is on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg, happy day!!!! If only I didn’t have 5 classes today…. *sigh* oh well. oooh, fun fact, I just turned around and noticed that the hot P.E. teacher is wearing polka-dots shorts today. Had to repress the urge to laugh out loud. Seriously. What the fuck.

Soo!! I’m such a sneaky bastard, I managed to talk my way out of going to 4^th period. eheh. well, it was a bit of a pain, cuz the schedule changing to A-week for a day only meant that I was supposed to go to sentaku class, and I just told Mizushima-sensei I hadn’t planned anything cuz it was “out of pattern” and he was like “please stay here”. and I am glad to oblige. Normally I wouldn’t mind, but 5 classes a day sucks, and so I’m quite happy to have this break.

All my classes this morning went well. First I had 2-2, followed by 2-1, and then 2-3. 2-3 was really energetic! I spent the first 5 minutes of class with 2-1 arguing with Ryo about WHY he had 4 bags hanging off his desk (and why he was so messy)… but he couldn’t understand my question, so much less answer me, and thus it took like 5 whole minutes for him to tell me that he had extra bags because of club… in 2-3, I tried to teach “Whats’ up?” to Kazunari, and by the end of my explanation, the whole class was super quiet and one kid went “iiii naaaa… Kazunari, you got Vanessa’s attention all to yourself” and he was kinda embarrassed. mwaha. They really enjoyed playing the game though. I’m happy when I do activities and kids get into it ^_^

LOL! Minami is such a cracker!! I think I just had the best lesson with 3-1 ever. They’d been pestering me (mostly Minami) to do the Justin Bieber song, so I fetched the old posters and reprinted some papers, and off I went. First of all, when I showed up to class, Ikuto (the weird kid) got up from his seat and came over to me with his arms stretched wide, going “neeeeeeeeeeee Vanessaaaaaaaaaaa tuskaretaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa” and gave me a hug. LOL. It’s pretty hilarious because I think that is the only time a kid actually hugged me of their own volition. Usually, they kinda reach in for one and then shy back. lol. I don’t mind hugging you, kiddy, as long as you don’t try to make a grab at my tits, all is well. then when we started the lesson and I started the “listening” activity, I had to shush Minami several times because she would just exclaim and comment every time I added a new information “eeeeeeeeeeeh?! Justin Bieber likes chess?!?!? sugoiiiii!!! kakkoiiii!!!!” lol. Anyways, it was really funny, and much better than a class of zombies who don’t participate. Then, during the song, when it goes “baby, baby, baaaaby…” Minami exclaimed “eh? is he saying ‘akachan, akachan’?” and everybody just burst out laughing at her and I explained “in English saying “baby” is like saying “honey”. It means his girlfriend” and she went “aaaaah….” lol. After that they made me play the Simple Plan song that they didn’t get to hear last time (cuz I’d forgotten to charge my ipod and it died) and I was kinda happy they still wanted to hear it. Then, we just kinda dicked around until the bell. Minami went “nee nee… kono postaa, chodai?” (can you give me that poster?) and I went “sure” cuz I was just gonna throw it away anyways (they’re just laminated color copies from the computer) and then some other kids went “EHHH!!!” and Nichika and Nami fought for the other 2 smaller pictures. lol. Then, being the silly girl that she is, Minami asked me to “sign” the picture with Justin Bieber’s name, so I obliged, and then I had to do the same for both other pics. Hilarious.

After classes, I ended up staying at school a bit later than usual, cuz one of my old fangirls, Hana, was coming to visit. Actually, I don’t think I’ve mentioned Hana in this blog before, because she left halfway through the year, before summer vacation last year, to move with her father to Canada! and about 2-3 months before the big move, she started sticking to me like a freaking magnet, begging me to help her with English (and even French at one point, though she gave that up fairly quick) and making love declarations to me at all hours. She was friends with Miho, my #1 fangirl, and so whenever the both of them were around, it was just a big Vanessa love-fest. lol She even told me one time, that she wished she could be a boy, because then she could be my boyfriend, and would get really angry when I would say I didn’t have a boyfriend and say “that’s impossible!!!” lol. Well anyhow, she was a sweet kid nonetheless. When she left for Canada, we exchanged emails sporadically, and recently she mailed me to say that she was coming back to Japan for the summer. Last week, she mailed me to say that she would be coming to school this Tuesday, so would I please stay until 4:30 to meet her. haha. Well anyhow, she showed up around 4:20 and attacked me with a hug. she had her old friend Aria in tow (Aria is sooooo freakin’ tiny! she could pass for a 7^th grader easy) along with a friend of hers from Canada who was Chinese, and an older woman whom I – at first – thought was her mother, but it turned out being the other girl’s mom cuz they launched into this Chinese speech at one point, baffling me. Anyways, we chatted for a good 10 minutes, her English was nearly perfect as she understood everything I was saying, and poor Aria was standing there not getting a word… Then she said bye and went off to chat with Kyouto-sensei. It was nice to see her! It looks like she’s pretty happy. She told me finals were HARSH! lol. Well yes, guess what, in Canada, you actually have to study to pass!! : p

Wednesday

Today is Wednesday so I come early for the weekly meeting. And as I’ve mentioned before, sometimes students see me coming into the school grounds and yell at me from the windows. This morning it was Daisuke from 3-2, waving at me with his body almost halfway through the window (I thought he was gonna fall) and I yelled at him “you crazy!!” and he went “what? what? I don’t listen!” He meant “I can’t hear you”, but it made me smile. Today is gonna be a good day. Except that there’s no aircon… *cries*

First class with 1-1 went fine, but then at the end of class, Aoshima-sensei asked me if I could come to 5^th period to do the time lesson with 1-7, because their class with me has been getting cut for the last two weeks and they haven’t done it. I think it’s the first time ever anyone asks me to make-up for a lesson that they missed… how weird. I’m kinda cranky about it though cuz today is my only day this week where I have only 3 classes. fff… I was looking forward to having the afternoon off. buuut, I guess not.

Then I had class with 2-1 and the kids were like “eh?! Vanessa again??” and Ayumu started a little chant that went like this “kyo Vanessa… kino mo Vanessa… everyday Vanessa”. lol. (the first part means today is Vanessa, yesterday was Vanessa too…) then I was just dazed and bored for the whole 30 minutes of Shigeki-sensei’s lesson, and at one point, I let out this huge yawn and the whole row of kiddies next to the windows turned around to look at me and grin. eheh. Afterwards we played battleship, and I played with Yuma, the little kiddie who is a bit weird and often just draws on his desk for the whole class. He was concentrating so hard while we played though! It was cute. But he was really slow and we didn’t have time to finish. At the end of class. I had to explain (again) to Rei and Ryo that “winner” and “weiner” were two different words, and then they were trying really hard to say “winner” properly going “I am a WINNER” and I was like “no, you are a weiner” :p lol. I am so easily entertained.

One of the teachers in the staffroom just told Hiroko (3-3) “you’re the student council president, you can’t wear your hair in a bun!” I’m sorry, what?!?! she said “dango dame da ne” dango is like a little ball… so I’m assuming that’s what you call it when you kinda lazily flip your hair kinda halfway… either way, why is in wrong to wear your hair like that?!? Japanese are so weird…

In happier news though, aircon is back on! <3

Class with 1-3 sucked. Well, it was fine, but could they have been any LESS genki? sheesh… seriously. And also I asked Hasegawa-sensei about the auditions for the speech contest and she told me it was AFTER 5^th period, and not during, so I have no excuse to get out of teaching an extra class with Aoshima-sensei. Pooh. There goes all my free time today.

Aww… so as I rushed in to class with 1-7, Aoshima-sensei was in the middle of a little speech to the kids that pretty much went along those lines “Vanessa is supposed to have free time now, but she’s coming here just for you cuz we haven’t had classes together in a long time. So let’s be really genki for her, ok?” and the kids all went “HAAIIIII!!!” super loudly. bless my heart. Well, 1-7 is a good group anyways, and it has my wee little baby Eitaro in it, so it went fine. :p

Around 3pm I had to listen to the speech contest “auditions”. There is a speech contest for English in my town every year, and it’s usually my job to “train” whichever poor sucker gets picked to do it during the summer holidays. It sucks because it’s boring, the chosen kids usually have no personalities, and most of all, they don’t stand a chance because the winners every year are always hafu kids with perfect English. But whatever, this year there were 3 girls who wanted to be “it”. Kasumi, Sae and Nao. Honestly, I wanted Nao to win, only because I like her and spending most of the summer vacation together would be way more fun, but we ended up choosing Kasumi cuz she was slightly better than the other two. and I do say “slightly”. Actually, I had to fight with the other teachers to get them to pick her, because her pronunciation was the most “Japanesey” and they don’t like that. They don’t understand that having an “American” accent for a Japanese kid is nearly impossible, and that that’s not what they are going to be judged on. meh. Let the fun begin… :/

Thursday

Today is quite nice actually. It’s raining, and it’s humid, but it’s only about 24C and with a nice breeze, so even though a/c is not on, I’m not sweating like a pig.

1^st period with 1-2 went well. Yuka has them do silly chants on a cd at the beginning of every class, and today was a new one and the beat was really funny, like an attempted rap, and there was a little “huh-huh-huh” pause in the middle, which was hilarious and both me and the kids kept cracking up. also, while the kids were writing their bingo cards, I was chatting with this boy and girl who were sitting next to each other at the front of the class and they were both very cheerful, and at one point they started going to each other “this is Naoya. She is very cute” in English, (Naoya is a boy) and then he said “This is Yuri, she is not cute” and they kept on insulting each other in their very very limited English, and it was just hilarious. Tetsuya’s brother was still grumpy. I really dunno what’s wrong with him….

Oooh, I was supposed to have 2-3 just now at 4^th period, but since it’s the second time this week cuz of the weird Tuesday schedule change, Mizushima-sensei just asked me not to come. Sweet!

Lol. It’s after lunch time and a bunch of the 1^st year boys are standing near the entrance to the staffroom, and the door is open and I can hear them going “Vanessa… Vanessa… Vanesssssssa…” and I turned around to look at them and they giggled and left. wtf.

Aawww, afternoon went really well! First I had class with 1-2, and I swear half the boys were on crack, and I asked them “what did you eat in kyushoku, crazy-boy pan?” and they just thought that was the funniest thing in the world. These two boys at the front, Akira and Shogo, kept giggling to themselves and I went to pester them a bit. They wouldn’t stop laughing so I wrote “CRAZY” on Akira’s face in orange marker. He totally let me!!! lol. Teaching in Japan is so much fun. I get away with a lot of dumb shit I wouldn’t back home, eheh.

Then 6^th period was 3-6, and for some reason they weren’t sleepy at all, although I suspect it’s cuz they’d had swimming class just before. One of the boys refused to turn on the fan cuz it was “cold”. I wanted to punch him. Luckily, a bunch of other students were all for it, so we turned it on. Rina got all excited cuz we had the same hello kitty towel (in Japan, in summer, it gets so freakin’ gross that you must carry a small towel at all times just to wipe your face… fun, eh?) and Taisei was freakin’ hyper and kept commenting at EVERYTHING that Hasegawa-sensei said. Then we played the music-dice-game where I would ask them questions that started with “tell, show, or teach me” something. When Taisei’s turn came up, since he’d been such a cracker all class long, I asked him “tell me a joke” and he went “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhh?!?!!!!”, you have to understand that this is kinda hard for their level of English. Then he went “ok. I love you.” and I laughed. Fair enough, boy, fair enough. That was funny. Then I asked the last boy “teach me how to write my name in kanji” and what they (cuz the whole class was helping too) came up with was “horse”, “cat”, and then some kanji that read “SA” but didn’t really have any meaning. Teppei and a bunch of the other boys kept cracking up cuz the first two kanji together read as something else (I forgot now) and apparently that was a funny word, but they refused to tell me, so I think it must’ve been a bad word.

On my way back, I was walking down the hallway and I hear “hello!” I turn around but there are no kids behind me. Then I hear it again, two voices “hello, hello!” I’m all wtf and peer into the nearest classroom but the lights are off and nobody’s in there. I continue walking and Dan, Kota, and another boy’s faces pop up from the second door of that classroom I was looking into and are all laughing and waving at me. I try to open the door to their classroom, but it’s locked. “Why are there only 3 of you in there?” I ask, and they start laughing, and Kota goes “we are magicians”. So I say, ok, show me a magic trick. And then they did some kind of drumroll thing, and Dan stood there sideways, pretending to pick his nose. lol. At that time the rest of the class started trooping in, and Daisuke started yelling “hello” and “crazy girl” at me, so I took it as my cue to leave… lol.

Friday

Argh. This morning is horrible. It feels like being in a swamp outside, and in the classroom it’s like being in the shower fully dressed. The aircon was on first thing in the morning in the staffroom, but as I have class all morning, what does it matter really? Also, I didn’t get much sleep last night and my contacts were shitting in my eyes all through first period. Which didn’t go all that well, might I add.

Just before class, I spotted Ryouga and another of the baseball boys “playfully” bullying Takaya. Takaya is also one of the 3^rd year baseball boys, but he still looks like he’s 10. He’s super tiny and short. Anyways, I think they were trying to “kancho” him (stick their fingers up his ass, gun like… don’t ask… Japanese children are weird… although it’s way more likely to happen in elementary school than JHS, but nevermind) and he saw me and he went “Vanessa! Make them stoop!!!” in Japanese, and so being the bully that I am, I just smacked Ryouga on the ass with my teacher’s bag. Takaya escaped, and classed started, but Ryouga spent at least the first 5 minutes of class bitching about how I was a violent teacher, I’d hit him and blah blah blah. I just laughed at him, but later in the class, Hasegawa-sensei asked me “Did you hit Ryouga? He is a sensitive boy, so it’s dangerous!” and I felt super bad (although Ryouga, sensitive? really?) I wanted to argue, but it was really quiet and all the kids were listening so I said I’d explain the situation later. Anyways, class was really boring, they were just dead, and even the game failed to rouse them much. Bad Ryota was absent though, so that was one less thing I had to worry about. as soon as the bell rang, I went over to Ryoga and asked him “did I hurt you? are you ok? I’m really sorry if I hurt you, I didn’t mean to” and he just laughed and said he was totally fine, and Takaya laughed too and said “awww, the teacher’s worried about you!” and they ran off and I just shook my head. wtf, Hasegawa-sensei… he is not a delicate boy and I was right and you made me feel bad for nothing. Anyways, after that I explained to her the situation. that I was just “saving” one kid, and hadn’t meant to hit him hard, and she went “ok… I see…” so I dunno if anything’s gonna come out of that. I hope it’s all good :/

Anyways, I was grumpy about it, and about the heat and everything else, so I just decided to fuck off 2^nd period. That’s right, I am ditching. Well, to be fair, 2^nd period is with 2-2, with Shigeki-sensei and I’ve already seen that class this week because of schedule changes, but he is so old and confused he probably won’t even notice that I’m supposed to be there. Usually he doesn’t know that we have class until I go tell him. And if god forbid he does notice, I’ll just say that I was confused cuz of the schedule changes and pretend to be a dumb gaijin. Fuck it, everybody is allowed to have bad days and nobody else teaches periods 1 to 4 back to back. meh.

3^rd period was reading test with 3-3, which was completely uneventful except for the fact that I seem to have caught a cold and kept sniffling terribly (which made the kids laugh at me) then it was 2-5 with Mizushima-sensei, who had forgotten I was coming (see what I said before?) and then let me start my game way too early, so that everyone was done playing it 10 minutes before the bell and I had to improvise. I felt so tired and listless and sneezy though, that I did fuck all and just chatted Mizushima-sensei the whole time the kids played battleship. Only in Japan would kids totally do the activity as expected with nearly no supervision from the teachers, eheh.

on the way back I saw Bad Ryota who had mysteriously reappeared… with bandages around one of his feet and arm :/ I dunno what happened to him, but he seemed otherwise ok. I also ran into Kazunari, who was chatting with Seiji and I went “what’s up!” and he just looked at me all clueless so I had to explain all over again the whole “what’s up/not much” scenario… *shakes head*

I’ve also been informed that this afternoon is the ceremony to choose the new student council president (from the 2^nd year kids) but I already asked Kyoto-sensei for nenkyuu to leave at 2pm and it’s been approved so I will miss it. Oh well, it’ll be a surprise when I get back…

til then, enjoy the weekend!!