Great things: views, teaching, and enkais

Well, the great things in Japan keep on coming.

I have two schools that are 40 minutes away. I drive through a mountain pass, and when the weather is nice, there is almost nothing that could start my day off better than the view of mountain peaks shrouded in fog with the sun shining brightly upon them. When I arrive, there is this beautiful view of the sea of Japan and the small fishing village Kumaishi.

 

I have been giving my self introduction at 4/5 of Yakumo's schools so far. Each time it improves! I went the low-technology route. My predecessor used a Powerpoint presentation, so teachers were surprised that I wanted to teach without it! I begin with information about America, Minnesota, and myself. Then we play a chain race introduction game where each half the class tries to be first to get out their mini jikoshoukai - self introduction. I then ask students what they know about America, and they brainstorm (Obama, Spongebob, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, etc).  The best teaching tool I brought was a stuffed loon (bird) that makes a loon's call.

For longer classes, students get into three groups where they can look at my personal photo album with pictures of my family, my Minnesota picture book, and my Murray Jr. High Yearbook. We also end with a mingle BINGO game where students have to get 5 signatures in a row of people who like American things. For pictures with my students too, see my town blog.

 



Next, the BOE threw my welcome party. We went to a Japanese restaurant and then to karaoke, and it was a BLAST. The restaurant was in the traditional Japanese style with tatami mat floor. We had amazing (though difficult to eat) food:

There were also 3 games that the staff held for us. The first game was a sumo tournament. We drew numbers for our matchups and went through the bracket playing the izakaya style sumo: two people begin back to back with their feet on a pillow on the floor. You thrust out your butt, and the first one to fall off the pillow loses.

The second game was a big group janken tournament: rock, paper, scissors. I lost in the first round. I do not think I understand the subtleties of the game at this point.

The third game was for the staff: they had to guess how many famous Japanese people out of 10 my husband and I would know. We recognized 5/10 names, and the ones we did not know were a character from the anime One Piece, a couple of olympic athletes, and some other artist type people.
A note from the party, however: I gave the staff a gift of whiskey from America, after being given advice that it would be a good gift by some JET alumni. However, it was not the best whiskey, and it was a total mistake. If you give the Japanese whiskey, make sure it is the best whiskey! They have very high standards.

Finally, we headed to Joy Park, a karaoke box. By this time, we were so full, and for some reason the staff ordered about 3 plates of edemame, french fries, pizza, and meat and cheese tray. Most of it was not eaten, and I felt so bad, because I just could not eat another bite!

This was my first karaoke experience, ever. I had never sung in front of a group before. Here is another hard and fast rule about Japan: everyone rocks at singing for some reason. Maybe it's because of karaoke culture, but the fact that I am not the best singer and all of the English songs were either quite demanding vocally or party mix songs, it was a challenge to say the least. I was happy that there were some English songs that had both Japanese and English words with which you could sing along.

And to end this post, here is a bit I found on the internet about the name of my town, Yakumo, which means eight clouds. Its name comes from this poem: