Yesterday I finished at my junior high school here in Japan. Although part of me was glad, part of me was very sad too. Let me just point out that this was mainly in relation to the students - i felt vastly unappreciated by the teachers. (i think if their appreciation showed at all it was in encouraging the kids to talk to me, that's all).
But let me describe the day to do - it was quite something!
So I got to school my usual time - around 8am and on my chair i found some chocolates from one of the 3rd year teachers who is always so sweet - she's about 24 and i think she regrets not being able to communicate with me (the feeling's mutual) - and with the chocolates was a note written in English. I was touched.
I went outside to greet the students, not a requirement of my job but something i enjoy doing and the students have said they'll remember me by. I was called back inside by the kyotosensei (vice principal) and I had to give a speech to the staff room - something i'd prepared in Japanese and i said i with bad pronunciation (in hindsight).
Then I had to give a speech to all the students in a morning assembly. The way these work is that all the studnets sit in a line in their classes and there is complete silence with the teachers inspecting their behaviour, then several bows to the kochosensei (prinicpal) and anyone else who has to say something. Therefore I was given a bow too - it's weird when 750 people do that for yoU! I started my speech with good morning - and i got several back from the students too - that was funny. When i finished my short but sweet speech, one of the English teachers translated it. A student then came up and gave me these beautiful pink flowers. When it was finished the students parted, like the red sea would've done for moses in the stories, and they clapped as the kochosensei and I walked passed. Now that was just embarrasing! I hate that kind of spotlight (esp as i was walking with this huge bunch of flowers).
Classes started as normal. I did the usual last classes, which involved playing shiritori for the last 15 minutes (game: ate -> egg -> guitar etc) which has never failed in any class, and a picture with the class. My schedule was pretty packed as I was asked (and gladly accepted) to go to the special needs class in my free period, which I have occassionally done in the past. They are so cute, they did 2 dances for me! I love going to that class. All i know is that there's a girl with down's syndrome and 3 with autism, but maybe asperger's as it's not very obvious.
Working back to back until lunch and at lunch I ate with my 2nd year students in the lunchroom (no pictures of this but there's only space for 4 classes in the lunchroom, so they rotate who can eat hot lunch and the rest eat a cold lunch in their classrooms). Luckily it was a yummy beef curry lunch. After lunch i went to my last real class: 107 (class 7 of the first years) and they are so great to teach. They always clap when i do something exciting and they're studious but really fun! I will miss them the most, maybe. At the end, one of the girls asked for a hug, and she started crying. I gave her like 5 more, and took some a photo with her but i felt so bad!
I had been asked earlier if i was teaching in my 6th period, because a 3rd year class wanted me to come to their class for picture shiritori (like shiritori above but you draw out the words instead of writing them) which was really fun. But i also wanted to say goodbye to most of the students i could. I left and went to the teachers room to finish some paperwork. When the students started leaving i went to say goodbye and I got more responses than usual. some 1st years asked me for a message in their notebooks, some gave me little notes, and one, who had given me a gift, also started crying! The most bizarre though was when some 3rd year boys came and saw me with this heat pack (signed by a 3rd year girl) so they wanted to give me something. One gave me his heat pack and a band-aid (anything he could) and another gave me his lunch ticket for monday! It was so random.
I put the photos on a memory stick for whoever wanted the pictures i took of their class, and when i finally finished i packed up (luckily a teacher offered to drive some stuff over) i was ready to go and everyone around in the staff room came and waved me out. I thought that was very sweet. And then as I walked away and got some last "ester! byebye!" from the students, i didn't really feel any different. Is that a bad thing? In my mind, i was relieved, and touched.
I know I'm coming back though - many 3rd year students asked me to see their graduation ceremony on the 9th of march, and also i've agreed to play with the brass band at a concert. Now that is something I did not see happening here in Japan!I was asked by one of my English teachers to play for the students, and the music teacher (as well as some students!) asked me to be the special guest. How could i say no?
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Monday, 25 January 2010
Japanese New Years
Currently I’m back in the land of the rising sun, after a very enjoyable but extremely busy 2 week holiday back home.
The usual occurred – presents opened on Christmas Eve, a Lord of the Rings marathon on the 25th and the 26th, a top-ten New Year’s Eve playing charades and who am I at a friends’ house in London and then some quality time with my brothers in Nottingham.
As seems to have been the trend this schoolyear, some teachers at my school took advantage of my travels and the amount of times I had to repeat that story as a listening exercise made me almost sick of remembering it! As much as some kids understood the gist of the story, most of them were very surprised at the notion of Christmas presents.
They have heard of Christmas, and associate presents and decorated Christmas trees & Santa with it, but they don’t really understand it (as with all things foreign to Japanese people). In Japan, the main holiday is New Years, called oshoogatsu. Before New Year’s you wish someone “yoi otoshi yo” and after you say “akemashite omedetoo”. Kids, no matter what age, receive presents from their parents in the form of a fat wad of cash (called “otoshidama”) in an envelope (called “pochibukuro”) - Japan is, after all, a cash society. So when they think about Christmas they think about kids getting presents from Santa, but my teacher had to specifically explain to them that everyone in the family receives presents and you open them. When I was buying some Christmas presents and when looking for something for my grandmother, I explained who it was for that I was looking for and I heard many expressions giving off a feeling of surprise mixed with amazement (“sugoi” which means great, or “suteki”).
It is clearly not the fashion to buy things for your older relatives. In fact, Japanese mentality is such that once you have a family of your own, with a wife/husband and maybe even children, these have financial priority over anyone else in your previous “family group”.
New Year in Japan is more like Christmas back home, firstly in that it is a family event. They find it strange here that I spent New Year’s with friends. It is also a lot more solemn – very low key, with people visiting shrines (a ritual called “hatsumode” when they visit their 1st shrine of the new year) some waiting for the turn of the clock, or some just on New Year’s Day itself. They usually wish for good fortunes throughout the new year. Many Japanese people who visit foreign countries find the ritual of setting off fireworks to be very strange, as for them it’s just some fun rather than for a special festive occasion – not that anyone can outdo the Japanese with fireworks shows – just go to one of the many that are held every summer!
They have their own kind of cards, nengajoo, which have the symbol of the Chinese year on it, this year having been the year of the tiger. The reason for this is that until 1873 the Japanese used the Chinese lunar calendar but during the Meiji restoration period they adopted the Gregorian calendar so they still count with Chinese years but they celebrate it on the same day as us. (To make matters even more complicated, for official documents they don’t put years like we do e.g. 2010, but they count in years of the reigning emperor – now we’re in Heisei 22 (so the date would be 22-month-day)). Often the messages read: I hope for your favour again in the coming year, or happiness to you on the dawn of a new year.
They also have a lot of special food associated with New Year, one of which is called “osechi” – each ingredient has a special meaning and it's made with sweet potato, fish cakes and chestnuts. Another common dish is the rice cake – or “mochi” (sometimes called “omochi”). This is pound rice, and you cook it either as “ozoni” – this stretchy rice cake in a fish broth with chicken, eating for breakfast on new years – or sweet, such as dipped in kineki powder (beige powder tasting a little like green tea, bitter) called “kinekimochi”, dipped in soy sauce with sugar and wrapped in seaweed “yakimochi”, or drenched in sweetened red beans called “zenzai”. The strangest thing they do with these mochi is that they actually have some (called “kagami mochi”) that they put out for decorations, topped with a bitter orange (called “daidai”) purely for decorative purposes and is supposed to give you many years to come.
So that’s the Japanese way of celebrating New Years. I did not have the fortune to experience it this year (though I was more than happy to go home and get some normality!) I most likely will next year – I’ll keep you all posted.
The usual occurred – presents opened on Christmas Eve, a Lord of the Rings marathon on the 25th and the 26th, a top-ten New Year’s Eve playing charades and who am I at a friends’ house in London and then some quality time with my brothers in Nottingham.
As seems to have been the trend this schoolyear, some teachers at my school took advantage of my travels and the amount of times I had to repeat that story as a listening exercise made me almost sick of remembering it! As much as some kids understood the gist of the story, most of them were very surprised at the notion of Christmas presents.
They have heard of Christmas, and associate presents and decorated Christmas trees & Santa with it, but they don’t really understand it (as with all things foreign to Japanese people). In Japan, the main holiday is New Years, called oshoogatsu. Before New Year’s you wish someone “yoi otoshi yo” and after you say “akemashite omedetoo”. Kids, no matter what age, receive presents from their parents in the form of a fat wad of cash (called “otoshidama”) in an envelope (called “pochibukuro”) - Japan is, after all, a cash society. So when they think about Christmas they think about kids getting presents from Santa, but my teacher had to specifically explain to them that everyone in the family receives presents and you open them. When I was buying some Christmas presents and when looking for something for my grandmother, I explained who it was for that I was looking for and I heard many expressions giving off a feeling of surprise mixed with amazement (“sugoi” which means great, or “suteki”).
It is clearly not the fashion to buy things for your older relatives. In fact, Japanese mentality is such that once you have a family of your own, with a wife/husband and maybe even children, these have financial priority over anyone else in your previous “family group”.
New Year in Japan is more like Christmas back home, firstly in that it is a family event. They find it strange here that I spent New Year’s with friends. It is also a lot more solemn – very low key, with people visiting shrines (a ritual called “hatsumode” when they visit their 1st shrine of the new year) some waiting for the turn of the clock, or some just on New Year’s Day itself. They usually wish for good fortunes throughout the new year. Many Japanese people who visit foreign countries find the ritual of setting off fireworks to be very strange, as for them it’s just some fun rather than for a special festive occasion – not that anyone can outdo the Japanese with fireworks shows – just go to one of the many that are held every summer!
They have their own kind of cards, nengajoo, which have the symbol of the Chinese year on it, this year having been the year of the tiger. The reason for this is that until 1873 the Japanese used the Chinese lunar calendar but during the Meiji restoration period they adopted the Gregorian calendar so they still count with Chinese years but they celebrate it on the same day as us. (To make matters even more complicated, for official documents they don’t put years like we do e.g. 2010, but they count in years of the reigning emperor – now we’re in Heisei 22 (so the date would be 22-month-day)). Often the messages read: I hope for your favour again in the coming year, or happiness to you on the dawn of a new year.
They also have a lot of special food associated with New Year, one of which is called “osechi” – each ingredient has a special meaning and it's made with sweet potato, fish cakes and chestnuts. Another common dish is the rice cake – or “mochi” (sometimes called “omochi”). This is pound rice, and you cook it either as “ozoni” – this stretchy rice cake in a fish broth with chicken, eating for breakfast on new years – or sweet, such as dipped in kineki powder (beige powder tasting a little like green tea, bitter) called “kinekimochi”, dipped in soy sauce with sugar and wrapped in seaweed “yakimochi”, or drenched in sweetened red beans called “zenzai”. The strangest thing they do with these mochi is that they actually have some (called “kagami mochi”) that they put out for decorations, topped with a bitter orange (called “daidai”) purely for decorative purposes and is supposed to give you many years to come.
So that’s the Japanese way of celebrating New Years. I did not have the fortune to experience it this year (though I was more than happy to go home and get some normality!) I most likely will next year – I’ll keep you all posted.
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