A difference

I ate lunch with 5th years two weeks ago at elementary school. I sat with some particularly genki students. They wanted to communicate with me. They pooled their knowledge together to form the questions in English. Using sentence structures I'd taught them they asked questions like, "What's your favorite food?; What's your favorite movie?" Then, these eleven year olds asked me, "What's your favorite? Obama or Clinton?" (Ignore the bad grammar, they have English once a month.) I find it incredible that elementary school students in Japan even know those names, let alone their relevance. Try finding that same awareness in young American children.

Office Parties

I wrote about graduation, but I haven't talked about the enkais. An enkai is an office party. Some schools (and businesses) have them all the time. A friend has been to three or four in half a year. Both my junior high and elementary schools' only enkai was in connection with graduation.

I was picked up at my apartment on both occasions by an English teacher. The junior high school's enkai was held in the upper room of a popular Chinese restaurant. Not every teacher came, but most made it. Unlike American office parties, no spouses or other guests were allowed. The point of an enkai is to allow everyone a safe place to get drunk and speak freely so office tensions can be eased. Beer and other alcohol flow freely at these events. Each person pays about 50 dollars to attend, which provides for the private room, the immense platters of food, and the limitless drinks.

Part of the etiquette of an enkai is to never let a glass go empty. It is also rude to fill your own glass. The proper thing to do is grab a bottle of beer or a pitcher of tea and circulate the room, ready to top-off anyone's glass. Even a full glass means little. I had teachers tell me to drink from my full glass so that they could refill it. It was a fun and boisterous evening.

To close the party we all stood and some teachers made short speeches. Then the teachers began a series of rhythmic clapping. I had no idea what was going on. Apparently, this is a normal way to end a party in Japan.

It was, however, not the end of the night. After our first enkai, the party went on to second enkai. The women and men split up for this. I have no idea what the men went on to do. Probably something fun. The women went to a brightly lit chain restaurant for ice cream sundaes. It wasn't quite the second enkai I was expecting, but it had its own charms. I've heard of some schools continuing on through third and fouth enkai, but since people were tired ours ended after two rounds.

The enkai at my elementary schools was pretty much the same as at my junior high school. We went to an Italian restaurant instead, and more people got drunker. While the jhs stuck to beer only, the elementary school teachers also brought out wine and sake. Perhaps that explains the oddest moment I've had yet in Japan. I was eating some spaghetti early in the evening when a third grade teacher who I hardly interact with tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a piece of paper. He then requested that I sing a song with him in front of everyone later in the evening. I was surprised, but I couldn't say no. I looked down at the piece of paper he'd handed me. The song we were to sing? Puff the Magic Dragon. Later in the evening our turn to entertain arrived. The teacher pulled a guitar out from nowhere. Then he unfolded a music stand from his bag like he were Mary Poppins. It was professional. He called out in English, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls!" People looked at him amused. I wondered if he was crazy. He started to strum his guitar and we started belting out Puff the Magic Dragon to a group of drunk teachers. It was surreal.

Watashi no namae

Right before I left elementary school I fell into a conversation with Ogawa-san about names. The conversation began with us talking about ways to tell if a name belonged to a boy or a girl, and evolved into talk about the meanings behind our names. This led to her translating my name into kanji. Kei-to-rin:



As you can see, the three kanji that she chose for my name mean blessing, dipper/ladle, and bell. Not a bad collection of nouns. Apparently the middle kanji is a very popular one for boys' names. She could have picked a kanji that meant door, but she thought that ladle was a better word for a name.

Her giving me a kanji-based name brightened my whole day. Awesomecakes.

Genki desuka?

Thursday was too long and busy for my taste. Fortunately, it was also very fun. Sports Day was easy to enjoy from behind my camera and under the shady tent near the free iced tea. It was probably another story for the students. I had been comparing the Japanese Sports Day to the American Field Day in class by explaining that it wasn't such a big deal. We had no brass band, no marching, no spectators. The teacher asked who preferred the American way over the Japanese. About half of the students raised their hands. Needless to say, Sports Day was enjoyed by some of the students and scorned by others. Generally, it pleased most since it was a day without class, and that is good in any system.

Sports Day led to a meeting at the elementary school which led to my weekly cooking class. All of the activity kept me awake longer than I should have been, meaning that I was not well rested for my first day of teaching at the elementary school.

Friday, I rose early so I could swing by the JHS to pick up a few materials I'd forgotten. Saying a brief hello, I grabbed what I needed, and hurried to the elem. I had been scared of teaching at the elementary school. Little kids aren't real people, and what do I do with miniatures? I was worried they would go berserk, that none of the teachers or students would understand what I was trying to say. That I'd be a failure. The funny thing is that the kids did go berserk, and I seriously doubt they could understand what I was saying, but I was no failure. They loved every minute of it, and so did I. Little kids, despite not being reasoning people, are lots of fun and excitable, cute, and easy to engage. I got to play music, dance, and make kidlets snap, whistle, jump, yell, wiggle, and move. They might have even learned something.

My energy was running high after my four classes with the 10 year olds. Sadly, that energy was sapped by the 3 mindless hours I was forced to spend in the staff room to even out the working day. One of the teachers had died the previous Monday, and many staff members had gone to her funeral. I managed to pass out the taffy I'd brought as omiyage to the other teachers. They liked it a lot. I felt bad because I miscounted and I think I stiffed two people. The gifts to the Principal and VP weren't very successful. They liked them, to be sure, but one of the gifts was a Fourth of July candle that I got at the dollar store. The Principal remarked that it was made in Vietnam. The VP asked me why I'd given a candle with the French flag on it.

With nothing else to do, I returned to my desk (my corner in between the printer and two dusty, ancient-looking computers) and counted down the minutes to 3:30 when I could leave. To keep myself from falling asleep, I found a world map with country flags on it, and picked my favorites. The winners? Turkmenistan



and Kazakhstan.



In case you were wondering, my boredom was so great that I have a complete list of favorites that numbers around 40 or so. Don't worry, I'm not going to pass that boredom on to you. However, if you want to see some cool photos concerning life in Japan, I uploaded some photo albums which you can access from the sidebar. Tell me if something doesn't work.