stories from the land of the rising sun

the past few posts have been posts with many many words. here’s a post with barely a paragraph. pictures from a month (and a bit more) ago. no new pictures because my camera is back in singapore. i await it’s return.

the three of us girly girls.

the two of them girly girls.

that’s all for now. am looking forward to a packed weekend. all nighter in tokyo with friends on saturday, tokyo on sunday, town festival sunday evening. may be dead on monday.

peace out yo~

teehee

just the other day, it felt like the last day of school. we had a party, and i guess it kinda was the last day of classs. today was the first day of the end term exams. so A was clearing his shite out of the drawers and had a bunch of things spread all over the main table. he goes off to class leaving F and i in the whole mess.

lesson starts and we hear A’s class going wild. they were playing a game of sorts and it felt like everyone in school could hear the kids having fun. and how can you have fun in school? it’s not allowed unless you filled in a form requesting to teach fun classes. so anyway, F and i being the childish kids were are, looked at the mess on the table and thought of what we could do. stuffed koala, checked. koala and kangaroo hand puppets, checked. kangaroo and koala road signs, checked. hehe we rubbed our hands in glee, our eyes shining with mischievousness ^^

F had a brilliant idea. the best. we cracked up laughing for a good 10 minutes before we got preparations underway for the great idea. the great idea was simply, get some string, tie it to the stuffed koala, lower the koala down outside the window (our room is on the 2nd floor and we thought A’s class was on the 1st, directly under our room).

prep details underway. kids across our room get distracted by us laughing by the window holding a stuffed koala. we wave (we’re out of sight from the teacher) and they wave back at us. we squat to hide when the teacher looks over.

prep details complete. we lower the koala. down and down it goes. start swinging it to get some attention from A’s class. no reaction. which was weird. kids across our room start looking at what the hell we were doing. then we realise that A’s class wasn’t on the 1st floor. it was on the 3rd floor. bummer. we run up and peek in his class, made funny faces behind his back and all the kids roared in laughter. A didn’t know what was going on until he saw us and cracked up laughing.

A’s class was over. then after lunch, another alt was having class and A and i thought, hey, we’ll pull the same trick again. this alt had said his class was downstairs and we assumed 1st floor. lowered the koala down and swung it a little. and this time, the window bursts open and girls start screaming trying to catch the koala. we pulled the koala up quickly and shite ourselves laughing.

then we thought. we’d better apologise for causing such a big ruckus mid-way through class. we wrote on a piece of paper “Sorry Gxxxxx” clipped two clip-on koalas by the side and lowered that sign down. and once again, windows burst open with screaming girls, catching the sign. we say to them “show this to your teacher!” they comply and we pull the message up, laughing way too much.

F comes in a while later and we tell him about the thing we did. we all shared another laugh before F goes “isn’t the other alt in the room beside ours?” the look on our faces was CLASSIC. we opened the connecting door to double check.. and true enough. he was in the room beside ours. blood drain -.-”’

we played it cool and told ourselves we’d go see who the teacher downstairs was and apologise properly. and then another idea hit us. one stuffed toy, two hand puppets, 3 of us, alt in the other room playing the guitar. we grabbed one toy each and made our way out. 3 grown people crawling on all fours on the veranda is a funny sight. you should’ve seen us. we looked highly suspicious. i wouldn’t be surprised if people called the cops on us.

our idea was to show the toys above the window clapping along with the kids after that alt finishes a song. so we wait. and waited. the song didn’t seem like it was going to end! we ended up crawling back into the room and telling ourselves we didn’t want to rob the limelight from the other alt. which was true. but the minute we got back into the room, the song finished. talk about good timing here.

either way, that was the best school day i ever had. just the other day……..

[continued from part II]

so speech was over and done with. not nervous anymore. it’s time for lunch.

so the 国語先生s and i head off for lunch. we must have looked quite strange walking out of the staff room in a big group. all the 国語先生s and one lone english alt. heh. but lunch was at a restaurant near the school. under 10mins drive from school. we went there in two cars, the 国語先生s and i…

so we get to the restaurant. it’s a lovely place! difficult to get to without a car, or if you don’t live in the area. utensils and cutlery all seemed hand made. it seemed like a place where they used organic stuff, everything was handmade, the works.

we sit down, and as usual with the whole japanese thing, there seems to be a seating arrangement. my 国語先生 (calling him my 国語先生 is easier to say. don’t read into it. plizz) sat the furthest from me. the teacher in charge of lunch said “O–sensei, you can sit over here, R, you can sit over here” and the rest of the teachers just filled up the rest of the empty seats between. i think my 国語先生 was none too pleased about it. but when another teacher offered to change places with him, he wisely declined. heh

highlight of the seating arrangement was the cute teacher i mentioned before, (the one whose kid passed away) sat opposite me. *grin* he seemed alot better, happier. if i didn’t know his daughter passed away, i wouldn’t have thought something of that sort happened to him. of all the 国語先生s, he speaks the best english. that lunch was the first time i had a conversation with him. he’s really really funny. he keeps saying that he is a “fake teacher”. which of course made me laugh because of the serious look on his face.

in japan, if you can speak even a word of japanese, the japanese would say to you that your japanese is very good. just trying, attempting to speak the language gets you a “上手” comment. so when the other 国語先生s comment on my japanese, he sez with a totally serious look on his face “まだまだ (not yet not yet) You need more practice.”

the rest of the 国語先生s look at him with shocked looks that said “how can you say that?!?!”

i laughed and said “i agree! まだ上手になります (i’m not fluent yet!)”

国語先生s wondering what the hell the both of us are talking about. hehe.. funny. this amongst the other crazy things we talked about and we weren’t even drunk. LOL

lunch came and went, and it was time to head back to school. we all stood up and the teacher-in-charge sez “each person pays 1575yen.” remember who only had 1000yen in her wallet and in coins too? yah. not good situation here. i walk towards the teacher-in-charge and was going to ask if i could pay 1000 first and the rest another time.

my 国語先生 (now it’s starting to remind me of ‘my little pony’) sez to me “do you have money?”

i reply cheekily “nah… i don’t” while holding my 1000yen in coins.

he sez “i will pay for you”.

my jaw drops a little. i blink a few times and i say “really? it’s okay, i have some money.”

he sez “don’t worry. i pay for you.” and i thank him very muchly.

so we all walked out of the restaurant and i thanked my 国語先生 again. he sez “大丈夫.　後デートしましょね” with a grin on his face.

i started laughing and the female teacher between us starts explaining; he’s joking. he’s like that to everyone to both guys and girls, especially to young people.

i laugh even more at their attempts to explain and cover up. my guess is that they were afraid i would see this as sexual harassment especially more so because he’s still single (this is not to say that married men don’t do this, but…).

and that was lunch.

parts III and IV of my last day at the visit school will come up over the next couple of days.sorry for the lack of pictures these days. there’s something wrong with my camera and it’s being sent back for repair. bummer. and the keitai camera isn’t the best.

but for now, here’s abit of a conversation that transpired during today’s party in school.

kids: “can we ask you a question? a small, little question.”

me: “sure. go ahead. what is it?”

kids: “do you have a boyfriend?”

me: “no.. no boyfriend.”

kids: “ehhhhhhhhh.. why? but you’re so cute”

(this made my day. maybe they were just being nice. lol)

me: “heh heh. but yeah. no boyfriend.”

kids: “we thought you and F are…. boyfriend and girlfriend…..”

i start to laugh because that thought is really funny and i call to F across the room.

kids: “oh.. no no no no. don’t call him. it’s okay.”

i laugh even more. and the kids leave somewhat unconvinced.

then after school, the girls return to take pictures with the guys because the guys are leaving and won’t be in school much. so after the photo taking, the girls chat with A and he’s giving them his email. F and i stood outside and mucked about; boxing, using thumb tacks to see how big our hands were on the board.

then on the way home, F sez to me “i heard them say while we were measuring the size of our hands that they don’t believe we’re not going out.”

what the….. i guess we’re such good friends that people think we’re going out. the kids aren’t the first. oh well, people think what they want.

heh

[continued from part I]

so after my last class, one of my jtes come up to me and sez “so sorry, i didn’t tell the vice principal that today was your last day. so he said that after 4th period, there’d be a teachers meeting here and you can give a speech. it’s a japanese tradition.”

my blood drains once more (what a blood draining day, anemic-inducing). the part i was desperately trying to avoid, making a speech in front of all the teachers. thankfully, i didn’t have a class 4th period. i ran down to the nurses office, notebook in hand and wrote a short thank-you speech. all 4 sentences of it. i practiced it a few times, getting more and more nervous as the end of 4th period approached.

on the way up from the nurse’s office, i meet the vice principal. he sees me with notebook in hand, 偷笑’s (smies secretly, though in this case, it’s nosso secret) and sez “did you practice your speech?”

i nodd nervously, trying to calm my nerves and he sez “頑張れ (gambare)”. all i could do was to nodd.

so i sit down at my seat, with NERVOUSNESS written all over my face. i laugh nervously, i feel unnatural. i lie on the table, but it seems to be the wrong thing to do. i sit up straight. but it feels wrong. i look at my phone, time seems to be in a vaccum. behind me, a teacher sez “speech contest”. i die a little bit more inside from nervousness. the young, female P.E teacher comes over to check if i’m okay. i smile nervously, me and my nerves. the principal comes up from behind, pats me on the shoulder and sez “thank you very much”. i turn around in surprise and manage a quick smile with a blank look on my face. the principal’s words registering a few minutes later and the teacher across me laughs at my nervousness. i laugh back.

the principal makes a speech first. then the vice principal invites me to make my speech. i start of with “erm. hello. *nervous smile and wave* i’m very nervous now. but. okay. [insert japanese speech here] i turn around, look back at the vice principal and sit down. the teachers clap and i can see both the principal and the vice principal are 偷笑-ing. vice principal makes a closing speech and it’s all over. an english teacher comes over and sez “you’ll still be in japan right? let’s have a drinking party soon.” i gave him the thumbs up sign.

heh

so the teachers leave to go to their classes, the principal still sitting in his seat calls me and sez in english “i’m very nervous” while pointing at himself. i burst out laughing and sez “you too?” he laughs and sez “me too.” that really helped with taking the post speech nervousness away. heartbeat from prestissimo to andante.

how can you not love a school like that?

it’s time for my tuesday-sappy-emo-happyness post. *sigh*

if this is not love, then what is it?

i felt like i was celebrating my birthday today. well, a day long birthday party. from morning till a while ago. *faraway dreamy look* a lovely birthday indeed.

[warning: long wordy post ahead]

the day started normally enough. one of the 国語先生s (japanese language teachers) comes up to me before the morning meeting and sez “it’s your last day here isn’t it? the 国語先生s are going out for lunch, would you like to join us?”

a sign of things to come indeed.

blood drains from my face. not because i don’t eat lunch while i’m at the visit school. but because i didn’t have money with me. okay, i had 1000yen. but that’s nothing when you go out for lunches at nice places. i agree to lunch anyway, because it’d be rude to decline when they invite you specially.

morning meeting starts and ends, and the 国語先生 (the one i always talk to) comes by and sez “it’s your last day, how come you didn’t make a speech?”

i shake my head and sez “i didn’t tell the vice principal.”

he nodds his head and walks away.

following which, i had 3 classes back to back. each class having their distinct vibe, the students of varying enthusiasm. but all three classes were excellent classes. what a way to leave the school. they have good memories of me, and i have good memories of them. all three classes making wayy to much noise, enough for the teacher from the class beside to come out to see what the commotion was about. it was good noise, participation noise (if i can call it that), not the noise of them chatting amongst themselves. it was more them getting involved in the game we were playing. a few jaw-dropping surprises…

qn: what is the capital of japan before tokyo?

ans: shinjuku! (jaw drops) osaka! (jaw drops lower) urawa! (shoulders sag)

qn: who is the current prime minister of japan?

ans: abe! (he was their ex prime minister) some other name that was equally jaw dropping.

qn: what is the full name of the homeroom teacher of this class?

ans: toshio! keio! takao! (the jte beside me couldn’t stop laughing)

it took the kids a few tries to get their homeroom teacher’s name right even though it was written on some of their books. they didn’t know how to read the chinese characters. the kids pleaded with us not to tell their homeroom teacher they didn’t know his full name because he would get angry at them. it was a funny sight alright. ^^ we told him anyway, and he had a good laugh.

so i did it again. i left school smiling and this time, all the way back home. never mind it didn’t start off too well. but still, it ended well.

met the cute new teacher on the way into school, he drives a 4WD, dark blue and it looks sporty yet sleek. i get into the staff room and the teacher sitting beside me informs me that the cute teacher’s daughter passed away. shitezer what do you say to that? she was only 6 years old and terminally ill. he made a speech during the morning meeting, pausing several times to collect and compose himself. T_T

then today, the teacher i teach with took the whole day off. he’s (in)famous for taking time off and each time he takes time off, my classes with him are cancelled. i don’t get to see his classes much. so anyway, 5 teachers come up to me to tell me he’s absent. lol 5 teachers. and all 5 of them aren’t english teachers (school nurses, chemistry assistant, math and japanese language teachers).

the japanese language teacher comes up to me and sez “so xx-sensei is absent today. no class… how lucky. how about you come to my class 4th period?” but pity, i get invited to a class and cannot go because i have 4th period class.

later on, while i’m just surfing the net reading up on south korea, the japanese teacher walks by again and ask what i’m doing. we chat for a bit and i mention about me planning to head to korea in october. hence reading up on it.

the japanese language teacher sez “how lucky. going for a holiday. i wanna go to.”

this point, i couldn’t stop laughing. this japanese teacher and i chat quite often whenever i’m at the visit school. there’s a fair amount of teasing going on too (note: not flirting. definitely not. eww.. he’s twice my age!! ewwwww…) similar to an uncle teasing his niece. and he always has that cheeky grin on his face too. how do you take him seriously and not laugh like that?

the two classes i had today, the kids were absolute darlings. they participated, tried their best.. and it looked like they had as much fun as i did. being enthusiastic and all.

then after the 5th period, the math teacher comes in looking defeated and tired and sat down with a sigh.

the teacher across him sez “it was a zoo?”

math teacher nodds wearily and sez “very noisy, they are all like chickens” and rests his head on the table.

other teacher and i laugh. “1-7?” i ask.

math teacher nodds again but perks up “1-4 is my favourite class.”

the other teacher and i concur. it is the best class among the first years. kids are motivated, they pay attention, the atmosphere in that class is different compared to the rest of the classes. they could be students in the perfect village school.

“1-2 isn’t so bad either. i like that class too. x1, x2 and x3 are very enthusiastic students” i said.

upon hearing x1, the other two teachers laugh and they say “she is very famous among all the teachers. very enthusiastic. but quite empty up there.”

“what do you call it… airhead?” the math teacher said.

wahahahaha.. a teacher calling a student an airhead. and he even said it in english. plus points for him LOL

there you go. how can you not leave without a smile when you’ve had a day like that? nevermind it didn’t start of that well. i will so very muchly miss this school when the new school term starts.

in other random news,

my long distance friend and i are long distance friends again!! hooray for facebook and stalker opportunities. we might get to meet up again if he makes jp one of his pit stops.

the home stretch. that’s what i call it.

rewind to the beginning of this month.

i wasn’t really looking forward to the rest of june. first week of june was good. i had some friends from sing’ers over, it was sports day on the first monday (after being postponed 4 times), i took a friday off to spend with my friends. that was the first week of june, with just 3 days of real classes. then it was 3 weeks of real classes with no break.

3 WEEKS. i couldn’t believe it. i mean, the longest stretch of real classes was about 1.5 weeks. i think since school started. it’s amazable how and why classes get cancelled. at my visit school, classes get cancelled because one class is too far ahead another class. at one point, i’d seen one class 5 times, while i’ve just seen another class once. sometimes classes get cancelled because of some event happening in school. sometimes classes just get cancelled. i don’t know why, but i’m not complaining.

when the 2nd week of june started, we wondered how we’d get through three long weeks and pay seemed so far away. we dragged our feet to school, hoping and waiting for the weekend to come sooner. we sighed our way through the breaks in classes. we complained about how we had to work and moaned about not having a break. what’s with making us work so hard? three weeks to keep up this genki teacher-ness =3

fast forward to present time.

we just got paid three days ago and the bank books don’t look too good. i just paid a bill today, i have 1000yen in my wallet and i received another two more in the mail. a flat hooray to that. didn’t we just get paid? T_T

but we’re in the home stretch now. two more days and the weird half days of only morning classes will be here again. just two more days to endure. school is fun. but it can be painful when all your kids would rather be elsewhere. we’re in the home stretch and we’ll finish this gracefully. try lah

in other news,

i’m now have motivation, determination to hit the gym again. attending a friend’s wedding in october and i don’t want to turn up looking bad. it’s time to hit the gym and acheive results. results baby. gotta fit into that dress and look reasonably good. somehow. heh.

i see your jaw dropping and you screaming in your head “A DRESS?!?!?!?!?!?! did i read right? A DRESS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!”

yes. a dress and heels too! it’s a wedding. why not? i’ll take pics. but first, the gym beckons. i know how the dress should look like, i just need to find it.

c’monnnnnn! you can do it! 加油加油加油！頑張れ〜

so, no posts for a while. sorry. kitteh ates mai brains. it’s infected me with kitty thoughts and that’s all i have in my head. she’s currently chilling underneath the table now. need to put myself away from her. need some distance.

some thoughts after having her for more than 1 day

1. i don’t think i want to have any pets after i return her to host mom.

2. cat pee stinks

3. kittens learn so quick!

okay.. no more brain cells left. need to rest to regenerate them brain cells. i leave you with some pics, the rest can be seen on the flickr site.

in the pic above, we clipped the koala to her tail, then played the recorder. not loudly and annoyingly. gently we did it. heh

the next few pics were taken over last weekend on the way back after pottery class.

that’s all folks! till the next time before kitteh eatz all mai brains.

host mom has a kitteh. it is teh QUTE!

i can haz teh kitteh? i has no idea wai wen i see pikchures of kittehs, i type lyke dis. it iz too qute. mai maind’s aboot to esplode! plizz to has kitteh but iz not home long tymes to play wis kitteh. hope to see kitteh on toosday. more pikchures then~

and back to normal programming (not that i programme anything. but….) here’s something F said last night (names have been changed to just the first letters).

“A can has note but not F hm!“

heh. <3