Get out the map...: Tis the Season for Harvest and Holiday Classes

Wow... it has been so long since I last wrote. Which means of course, that I have too much to say.... and cant say it all, or even begin to start. Teaching has gotten much much easier. Though I still often start the day thinking "How can I possibly teach 4 classes of elementary kids that do not understand my native language?!?" it seemes to work out some how. I've found ways to help them work though my english, and I am understanding more and more of their Japanese. It is very rewarding to understand their Japanese, because they say the sweetest things. The other day my fourth graders at Shinjou came up to me afterclass to ask if I really had sisters who were actresses in New York. (As a class they are easily my worst class, atleast 5 of them will be running around terrorizing the class, yelling about how they want stickers, and going through my stuff, all the while the homeroom teacher sits in the back taking a break and doing nothing.) But afterclass 5 of the girls came up to ask me about my actress sisters. They told me they wanted to become friends with them because one of the girls wanted to be an actress as well. Then all them told me what they wanted to be when they grow up, nurses, beauticians, it was incredibley cute!

My favorite kids are the kids from Obo Elementary. The school is up on top of a mountain so high that your ears pop as you go up. The view is one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen, you can see out over the other mountains, and past them to the ocean. There are no buses that run there, and it is far too high for me to ride my bike, so the principle comes to pick me up and drop me off. The whole school has only 21 kids in 6 grades! All of their parents are farmers, and they live in a very isolated area. When they go home thier friends live too far away, so they come to school early and go home late to spend as much time with their friends as possible. I teach the 2 grades at a time, but still my largest class is 8 kids. They geniunly love everything I do with them, it's impossible to have a lesson plan fail. Then after lunch they come and get me to play tag and hoola hoop with them. In between periods they come into the principles office and do origami with the principle and I. It seems to be well known around Tanabe as the BEST school, and I have no doubt that it is. Unfortunantly I only go once or twice a month. But when I do go, it makes even the worst classes seem worth it.

The schools up in the mountains are generally the best ones. The atmosphere is very different, and the classes are much smaller. Not to mention that every time you go, they load you down with produce or omiyage (japanese sweets that the teachers bring in after taking a trip some where). Recently I have had an endless supply of mikan (like madarin oranges) and I would say I average at least 5 or 6 a day if not more. Wakayama is famous for two things..... umeboshi (dried sour plums) and mikan. Most of the countries supply of mikan and umeboshi come from wakayama. Everywhere you look there are mikan trees. Kaki (persimmons) are also everywhere, and dirt cheap to buy at local shops. I get them for free from schools, from restraunts, shops, I've even heard one other JET say a taxi driver gave them to her for free.

The holiday season (the foreign holiday season that is) which means I have endless halloween and christmas classes to teach in school. Unfortunantly thanksgiving seems to get left out of the mix. In the past few weeks I went to 3 Halloween parties, some more fun than others. Now that Halloween is over, there are christmas trees outside the big shops and the dollar store has loads of christmas decorations for sale. Every convience and grocery store advertises christmas cakes for sale, and some of my teachers have begun requesting christmas classes already. All this fuss over christmas.... and yet on christmas day the Japanese tradition is to go to KFC. Thats right, Kentucky Fried Chicken! Apparently it is so packed that you have to make reservations ahead of time. I have no idea how or where they got the idea, but from what I hear it is very popular.