11/10/07 Worlds Collide

It has been an eventful week.

Monday I gave a second demonstration lesson at school. This time quite a few more teachers from Yamabe and all over Ashikaga showed up to observe. The layout was basically the same as the last time with a few minor modifications. We taught a different class of students, though, so sometimes their reactions to questions and things were a lot different... keeps things interesting I suppose. I've given two demos now before anyone else has even done one, so I believe that means that I am done for the rest of the year... or maybe thats just what I imagined someone told me.

I was a bit intimidated when I happened to walk by this display. The slippers, the slippers! This was the point that I realized that my class would have quite a few more visitors this second time around.


Here I am, no doubt captivating and inspiring countless young minds.


I really enjoy working with this teacher. His class is always lively, and his students are very attentive as a result.

I am looking forward to visiting some other schools and being just a spectator for once. I think that there is one coming up later this month. Woohoo.

Thursday night I went to the welcome reception for the 2007 Sister Cities Association of Springfield Citizen Delegation. It was a pretty fancy dinner along with plenty of formalities. Several introductions, along with translations, preceded several courses of some of the best food that I have yet eaten in Ashikaga(or maybe it just tasted better because it was free). I found talking to the delegates very enjoyable. It was pretty amusing how many connections I had with this random handful of Springfieldians. One was a couple of years ahead of me at Ursuline Academy, and another is an Illinois College alumnus. I met him several times while at meetings trying to protect my beloved literary society from the clutches of the vampiric Dean of Students.

The Japanese love introductions more than they love green tea flavored ice cream. A lot.

These visitors also reminded me of how much I have probably been changed by all of this time in Japan. I watched as they grossly mispronounced their memorized Japanese greetings and warily poked at some unnamed piece of seafood on their dinner plate. Sometimes I wonder if all of these experiences I'm collecting are having a completely positive effect on my character, or if I am losing tiny pieces of my Midwest identity with every octopus burger that I choke down. A few days ago I talked with an American teaching English here who is finally leaving after more than seven years in this gig. Rather than return to her home in the US, she is moving to England. Restlessly wandering the earth looking for someplace better is very sad, I think. I wouldn't want to be a foreigner for the rest of my life. But anyway, enough of that.

My parents arrived in Ashikaga last night. With them, they brought their weight in precious, precious things from the US. They will be here for about ten days. It is my sacred duty to entertain them, but Ashikaga isn't so exciting. Tomorrow morning we are going to a nearby city to do some tourism, so check back for that.

10/9/07 Demonstration Lesson

Friday, on top of all of the other stuff I had to do last week, I was tasked with giving a demonstration lesson. It was only a bit more complicated than the usual classes though, so it didn`t end up being so bad. Several head english teachers from other schools and their accompanying non-Japanese english teachers all stood in the back of class and observed. I was sure of my own ability to perform, but I was uncertain what affect our guests would have on the students. Nothing would be worse than the students turning shy and refusing to answer any questions. Luckily everything turned out ok.

Afterwards we all had a little meeting about the class and exchanged comments. The response was mostly positive.

I`m making kind of a weird Hulk face and pose here, but this is a good picture of the class anyway.

One of the games we played in class involved the students wispering their answers to me.

After all of the excitement last week, I really needed a rest. I took it pretty easy, forgoing another trip to Tokyo that my friends had decided to take. I did have one interesting thing happen though. I was checking craigslist one day and I found someone who was looking for a Japanese license plate. I figured that this would be an easy order to fill, so I decided I should keep my eyes open. Two houses down from my apartment is a taxi place/car garage, and I figured that would be a good place to ask. So I just wander in there one day after work and ask the first oil covered guy I see if I can possibly purchase some useless license plate that they might have lying around. After a very long, barely understandable conversation about how old license plates must be turned in to the government for destruction, I realized that this particular quest had come to an end. This slightly over friendly mechanic though, then wanted a short summary of my life story, which culminated in him realizing that his nephew is one of my students. So he proceeds to whip out his cell phone and call said student, who comes by on his bike in short order. So the three of us sit and chat in the garage`s office for a time about all sorts of random things. By the time I could return home the whole thing had ballooned much farther than could possibly be expected.

Of course, this guy works everyday in the open right on my daily path to work, so I consistantly see him. Eventually I stop to chat again and he invites me to a local eatery hole in the wall for dinner. This was a nice opportunity, because the place we went to was a particularly insular looking neighborhood place that I wouldn`t want to enter by myself. It was a nice establishment, and the head cook guy behind the counter was very entertaining. An avid Elvis fan, he had songs like Return to Sender playing in the backround... what song goes better with raw octopus I do not know.

I commented on the owner`s cool headband, called a hachimaki, and of course he gave me one.

One of my friends had a couple of questions about the sports festival video in the previous post, so I think maybe I left out a few important details. My school has over 800 kids, so everyone featured in that little clip were all my students. I have just under 25 classes a week, which means I see each students once a week. The field itself is pretty rough. Its a fine gravel, which means if you slip while running you are going to come back up bloody. There was a little medical station at the festival for those occasions. Due to the playing surface, they play something called soft tennis instead of the tennis that I am familiar with. The ball and even the racket is a bit different I believe. So there you have it.