IrishOboe

Tuesday was a national holiday for the vernal equinox and Wednesday I took the first day off since I’ve come to Japan! I used both days to clean my apartment and get ready for Mom and Dad’s visit! I’m so excited. It’s also the cleanest my apartment has ever been . . .

I’m really glad I had those two days to prepare. It’s not like at school when you just can’t make time like that! Of course, I can’t do this when we have classes.

Naito sensei picked me up after school Wednesday and took me to her house so I could bike back with their bike. I’m also borrowing a bike from Mark, so this way the three of us can bike around town. It should be fun if the weather cooperates. It’s raining heavily (for Japan) now and it has been all evening. It wasn’t fun biking in that weather, so I hope God is gracious to us this week. Maybe it’s getting it out of its system. It’s often very beautiful the day after a long, hard rain.

Tomorrow I do the last of the cleaning then I take the bus to Narita to meet Mom and Dad! It’s so great to have visitors! Any other takers? You’re all welcome!

Friday night (March 17^th) Kasia spent the night and we had a lovely evening and morning together. We made dinner and played with my shamisen and shakuhachi and she got a sound out sooner than I did! The next morning we went for a run, and this time running in the morning didn’t kill me like it did when I tried with Leslie.

Saturday (March 18^th) I rode my bike into south Kofu for a treatment at the same clinic I went to last week. This time it only cost me $5. I can’t say I like the massage better than in the states, but it’s not bad for the price!

I then biked up to Kofu eki for a Hippo Family Club meeting. I had thought the leader would be waiting outside for me, or at least at the entrance of the building, but after waiting a little I decided that wasn’t the case. I then did my best to decipher all the nihongo around me and made a guess that they meet on the second floor. I picked my head in and thought I was wrong, but they saw me and invited me in. This Hippo club is mostly very young kids! When I sat down they were all introducing themselves into a mike in whatever language they wanted to. It was cool to watch! The meeting was two hours long and much of the time there were at least some kids running around playing during the ‘meeting.’ It was great fun to be around families and kids!

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I found this fun site on a friend's blog. Check it out!

These are the countries I have been to.

create your own visited countries map

And these are the states I've been to. I need a little help with this one. I couldn't remember if I'd finally gotten to Maine, and maybe I haven't been to Alabama. When I flew to Canada I went through some northern state, but I can't remember which!

create your own visited states map

I can’t let one failure bring me down, but man, it’s so hard to understand my students! I’ve had such great chats with teachers and adults, but today I stayed after school to practice with the kyudo club (which went okay, at least I learned one tiny new thing) then I got to talking with students in the rugby club. I was encouraging their English, but of course there was Japanese mixed in and I hardly understood a word. Even when I was going solo with one boy who was willing to slow down, it just didn’t sound familiar! Is the casual form really that different? Still, we had a good conversation in English and sand drawings, but I was sad that it basically showed that I don’t know any Japanese! Gambaru! I will fight!

I don’t think it was really a sports festival since they translated it as “ball game” for me, but I think sports festival is a good description. For two days all the students (sannensei have graduated so it’s just ichinensei and ninensei – they don’t get promoted until the first day of school) compete in various athletic events to determine the strongest class. (More)

On Sunday March 12^th I played in the Live in Shirane! concert with Shirane High School’s brass band club. I had begun to regret the decision when I realized I’d be gone all Sunday and I’d rather be lazy at home. I had a good time, though. Since I was going to 10am rehearsal (they started at 9 but I negotiated to come later – the concert was at 3:30!), I was able to come a bit earlier and see the students going to Australia off. It was so interesting to see the fifteen girls in casual clothes – they look so different without their uniforms! Somehow I think their names would be easier to remember if they always wore casual clothes . . . (More)

Well, I’m just having too much fun. It’s been another week and a bit since I last wrote and again so much has happened! Once again, I’ll try to go by category since I think it’s more interesting then reading a long post in chronological order.

In general, the weather has been warming up, which has been lovely. I’ve had a few days without long underwear and a few runs with a t-shirt. It’s great! We had a couple day cold spell for the sports days, but it’s warming up again and right now we’re having a good cleansing rain. (More)

One of my students is going to do the rest of his high school study in Ireland (who’s jealous?!) so before he leaves his family invited me for dinner and the night. Apparently that’s not culturally odd, so I accepted the invitation. It turns out Shin’s place is at the very south part of the Kofu valley region so it took me an hour to bike there, but it’s a beautiful ride so I enjoyed it. It also explains why the invitation was for dinner and the night . . . (More)

This week was a sad week because I saw the last of my sanensei and taught my ichinensei for the last time. Graduation was March 1^st and it wasn’t very interesting. It was held in the cold gym, as usual and all the ninensei were there and a number of well wishers as well as about 20 important guests (other principals and such, though I couldn’t figure it out). This time I managed to remember to ask for the words to the school song so I could sing along. We sang three songs. One was Auld Lang Sang (different words, of course), a Japanese fold song, and all three verses to the school song. I read the hiragana, but I have no idea what I said! As a friend said in describing her graduation, “It’s just an hour of bowing.” That pretty much sums it up. They made the parents practice before the ceremony started. By the way, I biked to school in the rain with my suit in my backpack. I really don’t like wearing suits! Anyway, they read all the student names (each homeroom teacher read for his class – and some did it for memory – all 40 kids!), then one person went up and got the diplomas for them all. It sure was faster that way. Each time a kid went up on the stage for something he went up the center stairs and back down backwards! I assume it’s some sort of etiquette, but it’s opposite to US culture where we want to see people’s faces. It’s also dangerous! I said goodbye to sanensei and took pictures with them. Oh, they don’t have silly gowns like we do, but wear a red carnation in their school uniform. They also gave all the teacher obento (boxed lunch) – it was fancy! (More)