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Published: September 7th 2006
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This is at my first enkai. Look at the size of that sashimi boat! Another week has gone by on the island of Yuge, and I'm not sick of it yet! In fact, I think I like it more and more everyday. As I get to know my way around, the food in the grocery store, the people's faces and the names to go with them, and my students, this place becomes an even nicer environment to live in. I even successfully paid my first month's bills! I guess that's some kind of sign that I can make it independently in Japan. And, just in case you were wondering, my fridge continues to be stocked with fruits and veggies from neighbors. It must be fig season, because it seems that I have to eat 3 a day to keep up with the rate I am receiving them.
Im also beginning to get a hang of this teaching thing. However, I'm only in the middle of my first week of classes as of now, so it's hard to tell. But, I think I have an advantage that my predecessors didn't have. Everyone keeps telling me that I'm the first female English teacher to come to the island. Therefore, everyone is really excited to meet me. The
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At the enkai. Some of the BOE guys and two English teachers from the neighboring islands included in the same school district. students especially are really excited to finally have a female teacher. Also, the fact that I'm young helps. My predecessor was 40 years old, so they are happy to have someone who is so young.
This past week I attended my first "enkai." This is a kind of drinking/eating party that coworkers have to relieve some of the pressures of work and relax with each other. I guess its purpose is to make everyone feel more comfortable with each other, since working together can make everyone a little uptight sometimes. Well, it worked! I was definitely feeling a little intimidated, especially around my coworkers at the board of education because they are all old men who don't talk to me much. But, to my surprise, as soon as they got a couple of drinks in them, they became so talkative. We ate so much food, and the restaurant owner made all kinds of good vegetarian food for me, which I'm so thankful for! And, since this was my first enkai with them, and therefore kind of a welcome party for me and the other 3 English teachers from neighboring islands, my coworkers all treated us! I think the
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My elementary school kids preparing for the swimming races. enkai is a wonderful Japanese tradition, and I wonder why Americans don't do this. It seems that after Americans are done with work for the day, the last thing they want to do is hang out with their coworkers. I can understand that, but it actually makes relations and communication with people (who you have to see everyday anyway) much better.
The next day (Monday) I went back to work at the BOE and felt much more comfortable around my coworkers. Then, after lunch I was sitting at my desk with not much to do and I heard music coming from another room. It sounded like very traditional Japanese shamisen music. So I thought it must be on the television in the next room where people watch TV during their lunch break. A couple minutes passed and then I heard it even louder with singing too. This time I thought it couldn't be the TV, so I left my desk to investigate. When I went out into the hallway, I heard it even louder coming from upstairs. I sneaked passed the secretary at the front desk and tip-toed up the stairs. I slid the door open, and sure
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They look well behaved, but pictures don't always tell the truth. enough there was a group of about ten old women singing traditional Japanese songs. There were also two women playing the shamisen with them. They all gestured for me to come in and take a seat, so I did! I listened to about five of their songs. For one of them they gave me the lyrics so I got to sing along with them. The shamisen players let me try out their instruments too! Shamisen are AWESOME! I don't know what to compare them to. They are kind of similar to a banjo, but only have three strings. To pluck the strings you use something like an oversized pick that almost looks like a spatula. The women were all so kind to me. After a while I told them that I really should go back downstairs because I'm supposed to be working. So I started to say "thank you" and "good bye," but they said, "Oh! it's tea time!" So I said, "oh, but I really should go now, thank you!" But the old women sat me back down in my chair and said, "It's TEA TIME!!" So, once again I was overwhelmed by their hospitality. They gave me all
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They are all just waiting to attack me. kinds of delicious Japanese sweets and tea. They made me promise that I would come back, which I have no problem with because secretly my goal is to get the shamisen players to teach me how to play. So, good time had by all.
In other news, my elementary school had swimming practice in the sea the other day for their undookai. We don't really have this in the U.S., but it roughly translates to "sports or exercise festival." Every school, from elementary to high school has these festivals at the beginning of the school year. All of the students' families, and on Yuge Island, pretty much the whole town comes to watch them. They are not like actual sports though; it's more like tug of war, three-leg races, group jump-roping, and relay races. There are also several activities unique to Japanese undookai, including holding a bag of really heavy rocks above your head for as long as you possibly can. This is a lot more entertaining than it sounds. So anyway, I got to swim at the elementary school's private beach with all my elementary kids in preparation for this festival. It was great; there's nothing like
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All the kids sit in a straight line and wait for the teacher's signal to jump in the water twenty kids all splashing you in the face and swimming under your legs. But, it was a good opportunity to get to know my kids and have a good time with them outside of school.
The elementary school and junior high school's undookai is not till the weekend after next, but my high school's undookai was this past weekend, so I have some pictures from that. It was very interesting, to say the least. It was all day from 9:30am until 3:00pm. I got to sit right up front with the mayor, who is a really funny guy, especially when he tries to speak English to me. Along with the mayor, I was treated like royalty. A cold towel and iced tea was brought to me about every hour. I even got to participate in one of the games, which involved pushing a football around the field with a baseball bat. Way more difficult than it sounds, by the way. I think one of the best parts of the undookai was the choreographed dances that the entire school does together. I think one of the purposes of the undookai is to work on group skills and display these
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This is during the open ceremony of the undookai where the blue team and the red team make opening remarks. skills to the community. Yet another great Japanese tradition.
Well, this was the major events of one week on Yuge Island. Stay tuned for next week's blog!
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