A tall nose and a spacey mind

Today was sports day. It was enjoyable! I visited the different stations. One cool thing they were doing in the gym was the test of your “power.” It was this thing you squeezed that was attached to a pressure gage that told you how many kilos you could squeeze: a test of strength. I asked Shobu what it was and he said, “…For power.” He’s in my 二年生 class.

Outside, there’s a pool next door to Segawa Junior High. Crowds of kids were following teachers through our school grounds to get there, and I could hear the giggling and screaming of little children. Delightful. I met Sayûri’s little sister, Yûri. She was quiet. She couldn’t swim because she hurt her leg/foot. The other girl, Mayu, was pretty talkative and sweet. I think they were friends. When their group of kids came back from the pool, some of them asked, “Eigo no sensei desu ka?” (“Are you an English teacher?”). Others made observations out loud (the way that kids do!), like “Kami ga nagai” (“[She] has long hair”). As I was talking with more of the kids, they were gathering around me and Mayu said, “Hana ga takai!” or “Hana takai!” which literally means “[Your] nose is tall!” And I know I’ve heard or read that before and laughed at the literal meaning. I’ll have to ask Yukari if there’s a Japanese figure of speech that I’m missing.

Well, I asked her, and here’s the cake. It literally just means “your nose is tall!” (“you have a long/big nose”). And like children making observations, they have shared with mean a Japanese observation; In Japan, big noses are considered beautiful. Isn’t that awesome? It’s as desirable a feature as maybe long, silky hair is to women in the States. Japan just won ten points. When I’m thinking back at the first time I heard the “hana ga takai,” I think I might have laughed because the translation was “good-looking person” and it never explained about nose being a desirable feature, so all I got was “tall nose” = “good-looking.”

Sometimes when I hear everyone say something to someone else who’s leaving, I don’t catch the beginning, but I just mumble the first part and say the end. I think that’s a common thing that people do anyway, sometimes. (“Ohayo- gozaimasu” becomes “gozaimasssss” and even “zaimassss” the younger or lazier the person is/ is feeling).

Today I got to play the Koto! It was really big (180 centimeters, I think, [about 6 feet]) and you play it on the floor, or maybe set up on a long table. You wear flexible finger picks on your thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. The Koto’s supposed to take the shape/form of a dragon. It’s really easy to tune, too. I played part of the song “Sakura” a traditional Japanese song (I’ll look it up and make a midi of it). Later, during the actual music class, Keiko, the music teacher, asked me to join the class on the piano. We were all practicing the same song on our own for most of the class, then at the end we all played together. It worked pretty well: hand-bells, guitars, and piano (the flautist might be practicing a different song). At the end of class, she shared a secret with me after the students left: she’s *****. I’m not sure why she shared that with me, because not all of the teachers know. She was looking through a Japanese-english dictionary, trying to communicate with me. She looked up the word ***** and then “secret” and then *****. I was like, “OH! Ah! Wakarimasu!” (“I understand!”)

I also found out that the original measurement system (can’t remember the name) was equal to 3 centimeters and 3 kilometers, etc. But since Japan system was only used by Japan, they switched to match the world, BUT kimonos are still made using the old system. That’s pretty sweet.

I have to be careful about my sense of reality. On my computer screen, I just minimized an application I was using so that I wouldn’t splash food on it. Wow.

Inspiration and self-awareness

Today was great, too. I got all these ideas for stuff: my eventual blog/website (I’m very excited about that but I cannot start it until I finish the wedding). Last night/yesterday, I slept for maybe eleven hours. Unplugged America and Japan (the phones), left a message recording explaining why (humorously), and magnetized a sign to the outside of my apartment door, with explanation (that I hadn’t slept in 32 hours) and that I wanted no disturbance. I also got some ideas for more phonics classes. So rock on, sleep! I also got some ideas for gifts for people at home (unfortunately, my usual ideas are stuff that’s not Japanese). For Brian, for example, バットマン:　ザ　アニメ　の　シーリーズ. For Jeff, ポータル for ピーシー. For Michelle, 私はわからない. I have a feeling that for the blog that I do make, I’ll be adding entries like these, only editing them for anonymity and secrecy (like the gifts, for example).

I had no English classes today because Yukari was in the hospital visiting her father-in-law. So I was basically at my desk all day, grading stuff and then helping Sayuri and Mari with their English speech contests. I finished grading (what I could of) the 三年生 Unit 2 tests and a workbook. I really want to take my time and give these kids the time of day. I’m learning to read bad handwriting (in Japanese), so that’s cool. It’s encouraging that when students write English badly, they tend to write Japanese badly too. By encouraging, I mean that maybe it’s not that they don’t try at English, maybe it’s just that everything is a struggle for them. Well, that may not SOUND encouraging, but to me, it means that maybe I can help them or do something for them that other people can’t do. I like it when they smile. There are times that I like to crash through the formalities and proprieties of the Japanese culture and be silly at them. Like sometimes when one comes into the office, I’ll starting singing the Spiderman theme song using his/her name, “Madoka, Madoka. Madoka-Mado-Madoka!” Or just singing around them. I think I either freaked out or shocked a student that was alone in the hallway as I was singing, coming down the stairwell. She stopped dead in her tracks with her papers near her mouth, or her hands, I can remember which, and just stared at me. I smiled and continued a little quieter through my stifled laughter.

Point of interest: sometimes there is school on Sundays. In which case, there is no school Monday. So, next Monday, I technically have no school. But I may get called into something at 若草. In which case, I’d be happy to help.

Oh my God. I just discovered… wow. A future warning to myself: When I have on headphones, I can become completely unaware of myself. I was listening to quiet music yesterday on my earphones, here at school. Well, I forgot to stop recording in audacity from much earlier (it had been going on for about 40 minutes). Just now, I was listening to that recording. Not only am I a loud, disgusting eater, but I actually burped out loud as I was typing. Holy crap. I must have not heard myself at all because I cannot remember doing that. At that time, I had been on a mission to finish my weekly report before 5:00pm. So, I was nervously eating and typing emphatically (caught that on “tape,” too). I probably looked and sounded like a pig. I cannot imagine. No one said anything about me burping, but of course they wouldn’t. I can almost remember everyone looking up at me for a moment, and I wonder if it was that moment. Holy crap.

No steam of mine

Whoever prayed for me, it was answered extensively. There’s no way I could have functioned today on my own steam. God was in me today, lit a fire under me and I could teach well, I thought. One of my best teaching days, I feel: Confident and enjoyable. And this was going on no sleep. I’ve been up since 9:00am yesterday. (roughly 28 hours now). I prayed before I started my school day for God to be my energy because I know there’s no way in the physical world I could have functioned alone as well as I did today. God is amazing. And patient. And SO merciful and willing to give many chances. Today is a very inspiring day. Taught phonics to my 一年生 and introduced the game “Parachute” which is a much friendlier/funnier version of “Hangman,” using my dear friend, Patty’s idea of a guy in a parachute falling into water with a shark or on land with a cactus, or on top of a porcupine (very looney tunes). If they guess wrong, the strings break (erase). I made some modifications (the blanks for the letters of the word form a bridge that the students must complete with the correct letters).

坂本先生 was so pleased with my phonics work with the 一年生 that she asked me to teach phonics to the 三年生 class after their unit test. It was fun, energetic, and I think they were getting it. It was cool when Ryo was the only one in the class to get the right answer for one of the silent “e” examples (Pete). He seemed pretty excited about it, too. Oh, God, that’s sounds right out of the text book! (二年生) It’s exciting because usually he’s goofing off or trying to sleep in class (maybe he was, five seconds before he gave the answer). But anyway: cool moment. Heehee. I was talking about “th”s and “ch”s and when I spelled “the,” I think it was Ryo who said “t-heh,” so that was funny (he said it on purpose; had it not been on purpose, it would have been a lot less funny).

And thank you to all those who prayed for me. And of course, thank You, Lord for listening. All praises to You the Maker and Giver and Taker of all!

Smiley face

In the office, it was kind of quiet and the teachers were talking about something I couldn’t understand. Monma-Sensei was sitting at his desk and I hadn’t really talked to him yet that morning. He looked over at me and I gave a slight wave with a big smile, which he returned with a sort of cringe as if to say, “Yeah… I can’t smile right now.” He explained to me in broken English that the teachers were talking about how seven people who were killed yesterday around lunchtime by some guy. I couldn’t tell if Monma-Sensei was trying to tell me that the guy had a knife, or if her drove into something or everyone. But anyway, I was less smiley after that. He set me straight.

Not gonna fall

I feel like it’s autumn, about to turn into winter. Seriously. I can’t believe it’s June. Two months here is making my brain think it’s November. I’m tired. Sleepy, to be more accurate. If I should take a nap, I may not be able to sleep tonight. I can type with one hand pretty quickly. Not necessarily accurately, though. I’m going to Sendai on Friday so that I can get my reentry pass for my visa. It should cost about sixty bucks for me to get it (6,000円) and the bus trip may cost much, too. This means I won’t be able to come to Segawa for school, but I should make it back in time for the drinking party in Koriyama at 19:00 with my Segawa staff. I look forward to it much.
楽しみ.