Beat Festival

On Saturday I went to a "Beat Festival" in my town, Sonobe. Some of the kids from my school were performing on Taiko drums so I stopped by to see it. If you aren't familiar with Taiko drums, they are (typically) pretty big drums, but sometimes there are smaller one to keep a beat or bamboo shafts to make different noises. They can be incredibly loud, though aren't overbearing close up. I could vaguely hear the drums from outside my apartment a mile away. The first group was 1st-3rd graders, the second group was 4th-6th graders. They performed everything by memory.





The performance was held inside Sonobe Castle. I don't know how old the building itself is, but it's likely a reconstruction of an older castle that used to stand there. It has a newer part attached to it and several municipal buildings nearby. The local high school is also close by.

What I taught my kids about Halloween

In a couple of my classes this week we talked about Halloween. I tried to explain some of the candy in America, much of which was incomprehensible to them. In most classes, someone asked me what "Trick or Treat" meant. I tried to explain that treat was the same as candy and trick was something you do if they don't give you a treat. They persisted to ask what kind of trick, which caught me completely off guard, so I said you would throw toilet paper over their house. I even drew picture of toilet paper covering trees.

If I see toilet papered houses this weekend, I might call in sick next week.

On cheating

Last week the kids at my middle school had midterms. Before handing back the students' tests one of the English teachers made copies to try and see which questions were too difficult and what could be improved. Some of the students said she made a mistake which, in several cases, was true. However, for at least one student (perhaps three, I didn't quite catch it) it wasn't true and he was caught red handed trying to change answers after the fact.

The English teacher talked to his homeroom teacher who talked to him today in a room typically used by students making up missed tests. Whatever was said in there got pretty heated; I could hear the homeroom teacher yelling and other teachers would pretend to read newspapers near the door to listen in. When they were done the teacher was actually in a good mood and only restrained herself from laughing until after he was out of earshot from the office. She told us that the kid denied everything outright, said it was impossible that the test was changed (despite having a copy from before the change), and even tried to blame someone else.

It's interesting to see these kinds of things from the teacher's perspective. I don't know what, if any, punishment the kid got for trying to cheat, but the teachers viewed the incident as a comically failed attempt at cheating. They preferred ridiculing his ineptness to scolding his bad habits, at least in front of the other teachers.

One of the other teachers was telling me about the second years' tests and showing me individual students grades. I don't know too many names because I see hundreds of students every week, so she gives me physical descriptions instead. She didn't get my joke of describing a student as "black hair, dark eyes, medium complexion, and kinda short" (a generic depiction of Japanese people), but does manage to come up with unflattering details. My favorites are "the one with the face of a horse," "the one who looks like a bird," "the girl who looks smart, but is not smart" (she had a pretty low score), and, the absolute best one, "the fat one who the other children make fun of." He really isn't that fat, especially by American standards.

The festival that wasn't there

On Friday night I met up with some friends at a local bar. A couple of teachers from one of the elementary schools showed up and told me about a festival they took their classes to earlier in the day. They told me it would be there on Saturday as well so I went to check it out. This is what I saw:



It was clear that something had been there and it appeared that something may be there again, but there clearly was nothing going on. Nevertheless, this picture shows something many people likely do not know about Japan: there is almost no 'nature' in Japan.

What I mean is that there are very few parts of Japan that are untouched by people. The most visible aspect of this is the concrete walls that line most rivers. In part a desire to control natural disasters and in part a system of political patronage there has historically been vast construction projects throughout Japan. It's widely cited in travel books and newspaper articles that there are only three rivers in all of Japan without a dam or other obstruction. There are all kinds of superfluous bridges, dammed streams, and concrete walls lining the the countryside of Japan.

A lot of the mountains look like this:


At least at some points they do. There's all kinds of concrete structures to prevent landslides or protect roads from falling debris. Logging goes on pretty much everywhere (or at least it has). Many of the forests have completely homogenous trees; all the same type, about the same height, and presumably the same age.

Most roads are lined with rain sewers like this:


I have an irrational fear of falling in a rain gutter. In Nagoya a lot of the tops were broken (not so much here). When I walk down a dark alley at night, I'm not afraid of being attacked or mugged, but I am afraid of falling in a rain gutter and breaking a leg.

Influ-ninja!

There's been some more cases of the flu at my middle school, but also now at the elementary school next to it. This meant my fifth grade class was sent home on Tuesday. This also meant I had to wear a mask all day there.



Face masks are pretty itchy and uncomfortable. They make my face hot. I haven't worn glasses with a mask yet, but I imagine it would fog them up pretty good. I would try to explain that I could get free-rider benefits by everyone else wearing a mask and therefore not need one, but until I can do so in Japanese, I think I'll just wear one.

Another precaution people take against the flu is gargling. Many of the teachers I work with do this and the men do it really loud. I usually just stick to Listerine at home.

I can't think of a title for this post

I was pretty busy last week, so I didn't get around to updating this. On Tuesday I arrived at my first school to surprised faces and remarks that I shouldn't be there (or, more correctly, that I didn't have to be there). My schedule said I had no classes, but it didn't go beyond that. As it turned out all the 5th and 6th graders in my town were competing in a track and field competition at the biggest middle school. I went to that instead.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera. I wish I had because there was a stark contrast in the size of the elementary schools. Clearly the largest was Sonobe. The next biggest was Sonobe Daini (literally Sonobe #2), one of my schools that has perhaps 50-60 kids per grade, or 100+ at competition. Sonobe had perhaps 40-50% more than this, and the next two biggest schools (both of which I go to) had maybe half of Sonobe Daini, or 20-30 kids per grade. There was maybe one or two more that had almost as many students, but several schools must have had less than 10 kids per grade. There were about 17 schools total and the smallest has only 3 students in a combined 5th and 6th grade.

I ate lunch at a different school and stayed around to do some planning rather than watching the end of the track contest. I had a meeting with the 5th grade teacher at that school about a very important lesson we had the next day. Before that lesson, I had three classes at my morning school. One of these was a 4th grade lesson, which is a little unusual, but I also ate lunch with that class.

Lunches at the elementary schools have generally been okay. They're really cheap, maybe $2-2.50, and pretty filling. The students talk about the nutritious value of their meal at the end and maybe some cultural point if the dish is a regional specialty. On that particular day was perhaps the worst lunch I've ever had. I don't remember most of it but one thing in particular sticks out: an entire fish. Maybe somewhere around 4-5 inches long, 1/2 an inch wide, and completely whole with head, eyes, and tail. I've seen these before typically grilled or fried, but was never inclined to eat them.

At school lunch students are supposed to eat everything on their tray and teachers set an example. Typically I eat with the office staff so I get my lunch from them instead of with the students. Maybe because I'm something of a guest, or young, or not on a diet, or because they don't particularly like certain foods, I tend to get the extra food. Not only did I have to eat this fish, but I had to eat three of them.

And I had to eat them quickly because I had a very important lesson to get to at a different school in a very narrow time gap. The class wasn't any different from a normal class except there were about as many adults watching it as there were students participating in it. Literally every teacher at that school was there (it's not clear who was watching the students, though I'm told they were reading), plus all the English teachers from my middle school, the high school, and Board of Education members. There were no less than two video cameras and an indeterminate number of digital cameras. The purpose was to show team teaching with an English and Japanese teacher, and also perhaps to demonstrate the smart board (like a blackboard on a computer). Our class was generally well received, which meant I got to sit through a long discussion that was in Japanese and mostly incomprehensible to me.

The Seiler Piano Duo

Yesterday I went to a piano concert in the nearby town of Goma. One of the teachers I work with at the middle school invited me to see her neighbors, who are apparently world famous pianists. Every year they do a show in a an old Buddhist temple near their house that is over 300 years old (it's been heavily renovated). The concert was pretty good. Here's the Duo:



I don't have picture of the building, but I can probably get them later from my friend. I met a few other interesting people. First was Oto, another neighbor who spoke really good English. He's in his 20s and a carpenter. Apparently he renovated the roof of the concert hall. Anyway, I was confused when my friend introduced me to him because she called him "Otosan". "Otousan" is the Japanese word for father, so when she kept calling "father, father" through a window and all I saw was a guy about the same age as her, I was very confused.

Second were two Japanese women who sat next to me at the concert. They were sisters and very friendly. One kept giving me small snacks and a juice box. I'm not quite sure exactly what she said, but I think she was trying to set me up with a homestay (she works or volunteers at some kind of international center). It was a pretty good time.

Ty-inphluenza

...the pun works better in Japanese (really it doesn't work at all). It refers to H1N1, swine flu, or "Influenza" as the Japanese call it, unaware that in English this is the generic term for a type of virus, and a Typhoon currently making its way across Japan. Both topics were discussed in my schools today.

Sometime this morning one of the teachers I work with asked me if I knew what a typhoon was (in Japanese: taifuu), or if there were typhoons in America. I said yes and explained that we called them hurricanes, that 'typhoons' were only in the Pacific, and did not affect the West Coast of the US. Assuming she was just making conversation I didn't think much of it. After another teacher mentioned 'taifuu' and I noticed the light but steady rain throughout the day, I realized there was indeed a reason for mentioning this.

Right now, basically the entire nation of Japan is covered by a typhoon. This consists of high winds and heavy rain, but the area I live doesn't seem too affected, probably because of the mountains. Nevertheless, it is possible that the city will decide it unsafe for children to go to school tomorrow (many of whom walk) and cancel classes. Teachers will still have to go, but whether or not I will is still up in the air. In any case, I'm bringing a book.

In addition to extreme weather there is a pending viral plague. Last week three students in my junior high had confirmed cases of H1N1, or 'influenza' as the Japanese call it. They were all in the same class so the school all the students in that class home for two days. This can be fairly effective at my school because junior high students have all their courses with the same class and there isn't a lot of mixing between them (except for after school activities and clubs). This week there are at least three more confirmed cases of influenza, each in three separate classes (each different from the class that was already sent home). This represents half the students at my school and I'm not sure exactly what the threshold is for sending everyone home.

The combination of a typhoon and influenza has had two noticeable results: 1. I can no longer distinguish between my junior high students because most of them are wearing (oversized) uniform jackets and masks and; 2. The school may have to postpone its culture festival.

The culture festival (or 'bunkasai') is supposed to be this Friday. Every class has a few students performing short 30-60 minute plays with a brass band performance at the end. During their free time on Thursday, students will make final preparations and rehearse for the last time before performing. Or at least they would if they had school. Currently there is no clear plan for what to do if the typhoon delays rehearsals or if influenza forces whole classes to stay home from school. There's also a holiday on Monday, further complicating things.

We'll see what happens. I wouldn't mind staying home tomorrow instead of going to an empty school and trying to look busy for eight hours.

Random pictures

Last weekend I went to Kyoto again. I went to an area called Sanjo, the main shopping district in Kyoto (or so I'm told). A few blocks from the subway station is a web of streets covered with roofs and lined with shops. It wasn't particularly crowded when I arrived, but was thick with people by the time I left. Most of the shops had hallways so narrow that barely more than one person (or 2/3s of an American) could fit through. Anyway, there was some interesting stuff that I might get later and some cheap tourist stuff that I will get many of the people reading this for Christmas.

Here's a picture of Kyoto tower, which I did not take on this particular trip to Kyoto:



One of the first friends I made in Sonobe:



I have plans to visit this friend soon.

The Hungry Lion

Actual story from my 7th grade text book:

"One day a hungry lion slowly came out of the forest. He wanted some food.

He sat on the grass and looked around. He waited for a long time.

The lion saw a rabbit under a tree. He ran after the rabbit.

Just then, a deer ran in front of the lion. The lion wanted a big dinner, so he ran after the deer.

The deer ran away very quickly. The rabbit ran away too. So the hungry lion got nothing."

The best part of this story is it's denouement:



So in addition to teaching English, apparently I also teach philosophy and moral lessons. Indeed, hasn't there been a time in your life when you gave up chasing your own rabbit to go after a deer, but ended up with nothing? Maybe we should just be content with our rabbits instead of risking a deer and ending up with nothing.

I'm not really sure how these stories help teach English. When I try to explain to my coworkers that these stories are kind of awkward, they never understand why. This story is just the tip of the iceberg and others are much more odd.

I have a lot of free time at work...

One funny thing did happen today. I made a worksheet to teach the phrases "must", "must not", "may", and "may not". The worksheet had some differences between America and Japan such as:
In America - you must drive on the right side of the road, but
In Japan - you must not drive on the right side of the road.

In Japan all middle school and high school kids wear uniforms. So I tried:
In America - at school, you may wear anything
Thinking that students would write:
In Japan - at school, you must wear a uniform.
Instead most students wrote:
In Japan - at school, you may not wear anything.

That's pretty much my day. Lions figuratively biting off more than they can chew and students who think they should come to school naked.