Woo dancing!

Aug. 21 Friday evening

So, here is my continuation of what happened this evening. The enkai for the middle school was held on the second floor of Yamamoto-tei and it was just us teachers and the principal and vice. Oh, btw, the principal has the most free time out of all the staff members there. Seriously, I think he just sits in his office and watches TV or mows the lawn...he doesn't really do anything. He's like a sweet old man figurehead. The vice is who does everything and is called the head teacher as well. He is the most busiest and actually is in charge of everything that goes on. So when I got there, it was perfect timing that I arrived when Masutani-san arrived being dropped off from her car. Masutani-san is the music teacher. Her son, Kenshin, is in my preschool that i teach at and is absolutely adorable and mischievous. lol He got out of the car to say goodbye to his mom and saw me and ran behind his mother...lol I think he remembers me as the lady creepily smiling at him when I visited the school. =P I can't help but just stare and smile at little kiddies, they make me happy. ^O^ His mother tried to tell him to say goodbye to me too, but he just kept hiding behind her and peering out to look at me and shyly smile. lol I just kept smiling at him and said bye. Finally as I was about to enter the door, I heard a little "bye bye" from Kenshin. I was soo happy. Little thingies make me happy like that. lol

So at the enkai I sat in the middle (the seat of honor) across from one of the younger guy teachers. My JTE (Japanese teacher of English) sat at the other end of the table. The atmosphere was still very chill and relaxing. Different from the other enkais. Iwata-san sat next to me to the right. She's so beautiful and cute. My new idol. lol Sakurai-san also sat across from me. He enjoyed being able to see a row of women sitting in front of him. He likes women to say the least. That's why he's super friendly with me. haha. I like the man. He's sweet and cute. And doesn't cross the line, which is important. AND! He's the one who did the Darth Vader shrub. I need to get a picture of that. heheh. Everyone was super chill and we talked alot about stuff. In fact this enkai was my best one yet because I talked so much in Japanese with all the other teachers cuz they were so super friendly! I just couldn't help it. I love the junior high teachers as well as the students!

After eating we played a game of Jeapordy, Kenbuchi style. The questions were on Kenbuchi, Hokkaido, famous people, sports, and the ALT (which is me) lol. The ALT questions were actually pretty hard if they didn't directly ask me. That morning one of the teachers interviewed me becuase he said it was for some kind of quiz. Now i know it was for the game. It was stuff like "what was the first impression she had when she came to Kenbuchi? or What foods was she surprised to eat?" ...yes, I actually forgot some of the answers to them myself. lol Anyways, it was loads of fun and I enjoyed it very much! That night was awesome.

Aug. 22 Saturday

Woooo! Bonodori day! In the morning I did absolutley nothing and just slept in till late. I was soo tired the night before and having a day off is wonderful. Well, I had to go buy food from the local conbini because my gas stove wouldn't work for some reason. And at the conbini as I was heading out after buying stuff, I saw a student in her PE track suit uniform. I wasn't exactly sure if she was my student, but upon passing her she noticed me and said a quick "konnichiwa". I was a little surprised but I said the same thing back. It's nice to be greeted by your students. On my way back it was pouring rain. And I had a bike....Yes....I got wet. >.< But it was part of the fun experience. When it stopped raining and I went to walk around outside, I saw a couple of kids playing around, but I wasn't sure if they were my students so I just stared at them. lol But they looked up and saw me and was like "ah! It's Theresa-sensei!" And then the other kids would look over and see me and say the same thing or "honto da". And that's when I know that they are my students and would say hi back and wave. I need to just assume that all the kids in this town are my kids...which they are except for maybe half of the babies cuz I only teach at one nursery.

At 4pm I went over to Satomi's apt. to try on her yukata that she let me borrow. It was a navy colored yukata with sunflowers all over it. It was cute! Her grandma actually made it! So I was very honored to be able to wear it. ^_^ She's so nice. And her apt. was super plush. It's not that much bigger than mine, but she made it awesome looking. That's how I want my apt. to be like to. To feel homely and happy. Anyways, it took us a good 45 min to put on my yukata. lol We kept loosening it and then tightening it and then having problems with how to tie the obi (the bow are). But afterwards I went back to my apt. and watched some Korean Hana yori Dango to wait for Satomi to be finished with whatever she was doing and come over and get me so that we could walk over to the Obon odori place together. I'm stuck on the korean HYD right now. Although, the boys aren't as hot, the happy feeling's still there.

At 6pm Satomi in her cute little yukata came to get me. We ended up driving over there because it would take to long to walk in our yukatas. lol Upon arriving there I saw my taiko group and Tanaka-san. The man is so cool. If I had a husband like that, I would be so proud. =P I'm sure his wife and kid are. His son by the way said he's very happy that I still remember his name when I was teaching his class. I waved to Tanaka-san and then kept on walking over to the gym to meet up with the 5 exchange girls. On my way over there I heard alot of "Ah! Theresa-sensei!" from the kids. lol I felt popular. XD Some of the kids would also come over to me and say hi. I loved it. The kids here are so friendly. Well, mainly the junior high and elementary kids. The high schoolers were a little bit more distant and I really couldn't recognize them outside of their uniforms. They usually look pretty different.

The exchange girls looked sooo cute in their yukatas and we all gathered round to take pictures. They're like my new best friends in this town. I wish they could stay longer, we would've really hit it off mainly because we all speak mandarin and cantonese. And we had a giant fan that said in Japanese 'international exchange students team' and had pokemon all over it...lol I don't know why our symbol was the pokemon. But okay. I felt like I was back with my friends in the US where we were all touchy feely and super nakayoku. I do miss it. Being super friendly with people like that. I miss it quite a lot. I love hugging and grabbing each other and being silly and playing with each other like I did with the girls because they were like that as well. I really missed the overfriendliness feel. lol I couldn't help it and immersed myself into their group. I was treated like part of them as well. So I really appreciated it. Anyways we took lotsa pictures and whatnot. And then we headed over to join the main festival.

To describe this festival: it's basically a dance for the dead competition. Obon is to honor those who have passed away, and this dance is supposed to do that. However, the one in Kenbuchi is a special case as it is a competition between the neighboring cities and whoever wishes to join in from this town. So people from Shibetsu and Wassamu were there too. Everyone had little costumes of their own. It was so cute! I saw old people dressed up as bees, middle aged people as sheeps, and a group of Korean people dressed in historical Korean clothing. There were alot more groups all creatively dressed. It was like Halloween basically! So cool! I need to get the pictures from the town hall peoples. I couldn't take pictures because I was dancing. haha. My group was just a bunch of girls and some guys in yukatas. And as I was dancing I heard a lot of people go "Ah! Theresa-sensei da! Theresa-sensei!" Basically, all my kids were there. It was a good chance to meet more of them. Or all of them. They were also all in little teams and were dressed up in various costumes. SOOOO CUTE!! And I felt popular because everyone was calling my name and saying hi to me. The kids would also then call their parents over to introduce me...lol So I think I know the whole town now. I drew attention from alot of people because everyone was telling everyone about me...lol

My 2nd year Junior high girls are the best. They came over to say hi to me and when they saw me dancing I heard alot of them say "kawaii". lol But since we were dancing in large cirlces with many rings such as the inner, middle, and outer rings, i would constantly be dancing besides my students. That gave me the chance to say hi to them and look like a normal person since I was dancing and being silly. I guess that made the students feel more comfortable with talking to me. The dance went on for 2 hours. And we really danced for two hours!! My hands were so numb from clapping so many times and my feet were ready to collapse under me. But it finally ended and i decided to go with Satomi to get crepes. Along with her was a boy named Fuuga. Cute 1st year high school boy. And he was very willing to speak in English with me. I can tell he will be a cool guy when he gets older. Speaking of that, alot of my Elementary boys definitely look like they will grow up to be pretty hot and cool-like. Too bad there's not that many of them now in high school. The elementary boys already look like they would be pretty awesome except for the fact that they're still little kids. =P I'm not a predator I swear. lol I just think they're adorable.

As we were waiting in the long-ass line for crepes alot of the elementary students would come over to me and say hi and talk to me. I was extremely happy! The girls had no reservations with coming to talk to me. But I think it's because we're the same gender. lol If I was a boy, the boys would be much more outgoing with me than the girls I believe. But it's been a while since they've had a girl ALT so I think the female students were excited. lol I'm glad. The little girls were so genki and everything and some took pictures with me and introduced me to their parents. heh. And then the little boys would hustle each other about who should say hi to me. lol I think they were nervous. But one group of little boys standing behind me in line shoved the cutest one in front of them to say hi to me. XD lol It was kind of funny seeing that. He was pushed out in front and then said "Theresa-sensei" really loudly. Haha. And then the boys were like "you did it!" LOL I thought that was so cute! I smiled, said hi, and waved enthusiastically. And then I asked for each one's names. I mainly said this all in Japanese because I don't think they understand my English. Only the junior high kids can. Even the high school kids' english isn't as great as junior high. But we will work on that. You know, trying to remember about 300 or so kids' names, plus the teachers, plus the town hall faculty is really difficult! I'll try my best, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to ask the kids again. Ganbarimasu!

After the festival ended there were fireworks! That was cool! And after the fireworks ended I ran over the my new favorite group of junior high school girls to say bye. They were so happy to talk to me! And i was curious with what they were eating. The girls asked if I wanted to try some and held up the food with chopsticks in front of my mouth. So I just bit it off directly from them. I was so happy to share that moment with them. New bonding time! ^_^ heheh. It was pretty good. It's called imo-dango. No, the dango isn't emo or anything like that. It just means that it is a potato ball that was grilled with sauce on it. I made them laugh a little and then ran off to join Satomi to go to the nomikai (drinking party) for all of the exchange students and the rest of our group. Oh! Btw, we won 5th place! 20,000yen! Not bad! ^o^

Again we were on the second floor of Yamamoto-tei and again more alcohol...I swear, all I do here is drink. But this time I refrained from drinking beer and just had Calpis-sour and a peach cocktail of sorts. ANd it was hot pot to eat for tonight. Yummy and filling, but eating in a yukata was kinda uncomfortable and hot. I had a jolly good time talking with the girls. We were talking about love lives, what kind of guys we like, and stupid funny things all in Chinese. So on the occasions I would turn to Satomi to explain to her what we were talking about otherwise I felt a little bad that they were being left out. The girls were so loud and boisterous because of the alcohol. I controlled myself pretty well I think because even though it was an enkai and wierd behaviour is allowed, I still think that people will judge me if I act stupid since I'm the teacher. So I kept myself pretty level headed but had fun talking with the girls at the same time. I was so ecstatic to do so.

At 10 everything finished and the girls decided to go down for nijikai to sing karaoke and have fun. I was too tired and wanted to change out of my yukata so Satomi and I left first. Besides, I have more festival stuffs I have to do the next day so I'm heading off to sleep even though it's almost 2am right now. I have 7 hours before I need to wake up. So I will end my post here for tonight.

Otsukare-sama for reading! I will I will I will have pictures posted by the end of this week. Love ya!