Halloween, Kochi-style

Hello friends,

I know I still have yet to write about Hiroshima. You see, I was uploading the pictures from my camera to my computer, and the photo organizing program that I use, iPhoto, decided to freeze mid-upload. I had to force-quit the program, causing 76 pictures to disappear into the abyss. Which sucks. So, I'm going to see if there's any way to recover those (even though my professional Geek boyfriend says it's impossible) before I post about Hiroshima, but don't worry, I'll get to it.

Ok, so, Halloween!

Every year, Sarah has a Halloween party for the kids of Aki City. This year, it was held the weekend before Halloween so as not to conflict with the Hirome Halloween party in Kochi City. She needed some JETs to volunteer to help out, and I thought it sounded like fun.

(Pic stolen from Sarah — Me, Sarah, Annie and Luce in our costumes. My costume for the Hirome Halloween party was swine flu, but for the Aki party I decided to go as a regular pig. Gotta keep it PC for the kids.)

About 70 kids showed up, including a lot of my students. We started at the Community Center, divided the kids up into groups, and took them trick-or-treating around the historical samurai district:

(A few photographers followed us around as well. I ran into Sarah's husband at the grocery store the other night, and he said there's a photo of my group in the newspaper.)

Then we came back to the Community Center for some activities, including a mask-judging contest:

(Adorable!)

After the kids left and we took down the decorations, we went to dinner at Yourou with some of Sarah's adult students and had some Halloween fun of our own.

 

On Halloween, I headed out to Kochi City for the Hirome Halloween party. I met a lot of JETs I never even knew existed, and the costumes were fabulous and creative!

By a TOTAL FREAK COINCIDENCE, George and I had the same costume idea:

(Of course, now we both think we're going to get swine flu for real as karma.)

Other costumes included Captain Planet and the Planeteers, an oni (Japanese demon), a bunny, Hermione, a Native American, an astronaut, King of the Wild Things, a professor, a Power Ranger, a robber and a hippie:

A few people went with movie-inspired costumes, like Matt (Walter from The Big Lebwoski):

Annie (Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas):

Ben (Elwood from The Blues Brothers):

David (anti-piracy movie ad camera-head man):

(I haven't yet ventured to the lone movie theater in Kochi City, but apparently before the start of a movie, there's an ad showing a man in a suit and white gloves with a camera for a head that does a weird dance and warns people not to videotape the movie illegally.)

And Michelle (Sho'Nuff from 80s cult classic The Last Dragon):

(This 47-second YouTube clip explains it all.)



And then, of course, there are the random Japanese people who just want to take pictures with us.

Peace,
Britt

P.S. I took a video clip of a break-dancing Winnie the Pooh, but it takes too long to upload, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Catch-up post #3/3: Undokai and more school observations

Hello everyone,

You've made it to the last post in the catch-up series.

On Sunday, Sept. 27, I got up at 8 a.m. and headed to one of my schools — not for class, but for Undokai (Sports Day). All throughout Japan, kids (and their teachers) from kindergarten through high school spend a day competing in a series of team activities.

Though I was a little grumpy about having to be up so early on a weekend, it was pretty amusing to watch. Usually the events are done in kid-teacher pairs. There were all kinds of competitions, including:

• Bamboo pole-climbing
  

 

 

(I find it hilarious that they have to remove their shoes before climbing the pole. How very Japan.)

• String-tying (I competed in this one)

The object of this competition was to choose a string at random and tie it to the bamboo pole, then the next pair would choose another string and tie it to the first string, etc. Whichever team had the longest string of strings by the end was the winner.

(My team came in last.)

• Wacky relay races

 

  

• Hula hoop and giant shorts racing
  

• Balancing balls on a racquet while running

• "Basket" ball

The teachers would throw the balls over a string tied at the top of the poles, and the kids would have to catch the balls in their baskets.

• Tug of war, the age-old classic

• I don't even know what to call this one...

There's a bin filled with flour and pieces of candy hidden in it, and the kids have to stick their faces in the (communal) bin and find the candy without using their hands.

(For a country so paranoid about swine flu... WTF?!)

Then the teachers have to pop balloons by sitting on them.

• Cheerleading

• Giant ball rolling

• And, last but not least, a mini Yosakoi Festival!
  

Someone gave this little girl a pair of clappers, and she just wandered around waving them everywhere:

 

(Too cute!)

One of the teachers was handing out these sports drinks to everyone:

(It's not tasty. Note: it's probably not a good idea to drink anything with the word "sweat" in the title.)

Fun times — and since it was on a weekend I got to take a half-day off from work, as long as it was on a day I didn't have school.

Speaking of school...

Lunchtime is very different in Japanese schools than it is in the U.S. Usually I'll have lunch in the staffroom with some of the other teachers, but at one of my schools I have lunch with the students. They eat lunch in their classroom with their homeroom teacher. A couple of kids bring in bottles of milk for the students and a pot of green tea, which they pour for the teachers (though sometimes I've been given both). Then one or two students will lead the rest of the class in saying "itadakimasu," (something people in Japan generally say before a meal — it means "I humbly receive"/"bon appetit"/"let's eat"). When I had lunch with the second grade, the teacher also put on a CD of kiddie music (in English) containing songs like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "London Bridge is Falling Down."

The students are usually too preoccupied with their own food to care about what I'm eating, but the first time I had lunch with the sixth grade I had to show my lunch to the entire class because they were so curious about it (I had brought sushi that day, and the teacher was shocked that I knew how to use chopsticks. I get that a lot.)

When the students are done eating, they say, "gochisousama deshita" ("thank you for the meal"), and then they have to brush their teeth. In one class, the students had to show the teacher that their lunchboxes were empty before they could leave the classroom. After they're done brushing their teeth, they clean the school. Schools in Japan don't have janitors — all the cleaning is done by the students. Gotta love that Japanese work ethic.

I started at my fifth school yesterday. Since I hadn't been to the school before, I didn't get to do uchiawase (lesson plan meeting) with the fifth and sixth grade homeroom teachers. They were both woefully clueless about what was going on, which resulted in a hilarious situation in the sixth grade class. The lesson was about gestures. Since the Japanese "come here" gesture is similar to the American "go away" gesture, the homeroom teacher and I were supposed to do a skit in which she beckons to me the Japanese way and I misunderstand and start walking away. As I started to walk away, the homeroom teacher didn't realize that it was part of the skit and started panicking and flapping her hand at me even more frantically while shouting, "Come here! Come here!" It was pretty funny.

Well, congratulations — you've made it though this babble and are now caught up on my life in Japan!

I'm leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for Hiroshima, which is a four-hour bus ride away. The sake festival is tomorrow evening, and since it's a three-day weekend, Sunday and Monday will be devoted to sightseeing before catching the bus back to Kochi Monday night.

Good weekend to all!

Peace,
Britt