Gambatte Gochu!! and Okonomiyaki Mmmmmmmm!!!!

Gambatte Gambatte Gochu!!

The last couple of days have been a blessing. Finally I’ve been able to feel like I’m a real member of my school and I’ve been able to watch what students do when they’re not in class.

Every school has clubs. Four days a week, students practice sports or music or art (or English) for hours after school. Each year, junior high schools in every district have sports days where the clubs from each school compete against each other over 3 consecutive days. The events are held all over the city in different venues. Due to the sporting days, I’ve only had 1 class to teach each day, but after coming to school the past 2 days I’ve found a big red cross through my lesson schedule with “cancel, I’m sorry” written on it. Because I had nothing to do, my Kyoto Sensei let me go and do what I liked for the day!

Day one I biked out to the tennis in my nice pants and business shirt in the 30 degree, humid weather. The courts are about 7km from my place, so not a short ride. Then a couple of km over to the soccer (which we won!) then back to the tennis area where there is a baseball field to watch to Gochu baseball boys do their best against Yonchu, but unfortunately they came up just short. The soccer was particularly fun, it’s been a really long time since I saw a soccer game and it was nice to sit with my schools parents and listen to the usual screaming parents do (but this time in Japanese). We were also playing my friend Jo’s school so I got to do a little bit of bragging too! By the time this day was over I was a dripping mess of very disgusting sweat. Any weight I may have been gaining fell off me in one, long, humid day.

Day two was the same as the first. I came to school to find another big, red mark on my page so I decided to bike over to watch the kendo matches. Jo and I went together and met up with Wendy, she’s the other Australian in my area and we all watched kendo for pretty much the entire day! My kids did ok. They’re nice but very shy in our kendo club, not enough aggression to really get far in that sport. Jo left around midday to get back to her school. The afternoon was a little odd. Wendy and I had girls coming up to us and wanting to talk all the time. At first I thought they were kids from her school but it turned out she had no idea who they were either so I found myself chatting in very broken English and very broken Japanese all afternoon to random 14 year old girls.

One of the most interesting parts of my day was when I met an American guy named Richard. He’s been teaching in Mito for 3 years now and when he found out I teach at Gochu he immediately said ‘sorry’. He knew the last two ALTs from my school and knows my schools reputation. Apparently the last 2 teachers like me hated the place also had dramas, so it’s not just me =)

Today is the final day of the sporting events. Unfortunately I’ve been asked to sit on my backside and prepare for class tomorrow. Thing is, I have 1 class and that’s already prepared for, so I’m going to read my book and maybe sing a few songs in my head like usual. Monday and Tuesday my school has mid-term exams so no class to teach then either! Oh well…such is the life of Joel!


OKONOMIYAKI

Part 2 of this entry find us on the south side of Mito city with Jo, Wendy, Judy, Laura, Wendy’s brother Tony and sister Betty. We all decided we’d head out for dinner last night and have okonomiyaki. For those of you who don’t know what it is, okonomiyaki is a traditional Japanese food where you get your ingredients put in a bowl for you and you pretty much cook your meal for yourself. I chose beef kimuchi, so the bowl came with beef, spinach, chilli, egg, batter, and a bunch of other things I don’t know what they were. In front of us was a big hot plate and you mix all your ingredients together and cook your meal like you would a pancake! I’ve taken photos from the meal so you’ll get a better idea of what I’m talking about. There were plenty of menu options like pork or vegetarian, or musk room and even deer-fried lean-curd (I assumed that meant mushroom or deep-friend bean-curd?)!

So now it’s just me and Sonobe San hanging out in the staffroom. Happy days though, she’s just confirmed with me that class finishes on July 20th, not the 27th! Only 3 weeks til summer holidays!! Yeeeeaaahhhhh!!!

Ok this is long enough. Love n stuff.

j.

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