High School Festival!!! and more...

October 4th Sunday

いよいよ this day has come. The day of Kenbuchi`s high school festival!!! Oh, but the day before this I went to go get my hair permed damn straight and got a sleek new haircut where my hair is a sharp slanted down angle. I like it...although because I got chubbier and my hair is so straight it makes my head look smaller, my shoulders now look broader and I feel like I look fatter...>.< Well, I guess it`s motivation for me to get skinnier. I also coincidentally met Kubo-san (one of the teachers at the elementary) at the salon. haha. Oh, and I guess being a foreigner helps in the salon because you always get the young hip male owners of the place to do and cut your hair for you. =P

ANyways, so today is the festival and my hair and fashion is all set to go. lol I`m not involved with anything at the high school so I didn`t have to help as a teacher, just as an attendee. Although I think I would`ve loved to teach these kids hip hop. They would`ve been more involved than normal English class. So the kids had been selling yakitori in front of the school entryway that I had just missed when I got there. I had gotten there at 12 and they had started selling them at 10am. >.< It was 4 sticks for 200yen!! やすい！ Ah well. I met some of the past students and teachers. HOT! I was like "Who are these hot men and where did they come from????!" lol I met Yuki in the school entryway and it was actually my first time walking through the students entrance. I usually always walk in through the teacher`s entrance so it was a little wierd at first. haha. =P But the students were very genki today and made an effort to say hello to me whereas during normal school hours it`s rare. I was surprised by how genki they were with me. lol But I responded back with the same enthusiasm. Yuki and I were given free tickets for Marron cake by one of my BOE bosses. So nice!! So we first had some cake to eat and then walked over to the gymnasium to see what veggies and fruits they were selling.

The fruits and veggies they were selling were all grown by the students (hence it being an agriculture school) and these were beautiful beautiful veggies for cheap cheap prices! OH, btw, they sell the veggies that the students grow in a tent next to the school and their greenhouse and anyone can go in to buy it. You just pick out what you want and put money into the tincan. All the veggies are ridiculously cheap!! Like a bag of tomatoes is only 100yen!!! XDXDXD A Japanese pumpkin/kabocha is only 300 yen!!! WAAH! I love this town`s agriculture foods. lol ANyways, at the festival they were selling these wonderful wierd white things that looked like maggot eggs but I`m pretty sure was like popcorn or a kind of seed. It`s sweet and crunchy like the sweet popcorn and the popcorn they were selling had no taste to it whatsoever. lol Yuki had bought the popcorn and I had bouthg the wierd white things. Actually it was via donation for the snacks. So Yuki and I just put in 100 yen each. Yes...we`re cheap, but everything`s cheap here so it doesn`t matter. =P

Afterwards we decided to go to the second floor to see the activities that the kids made for us attendees to do. And found out that the 1st and 2nd years only did a small maze in their classroom that just had pictures of their escapades and activities throughout the year. It was not comparable to the awesomness and darkness of the middle school`s maze. Now that was cool. But nonetheless, good effort. Then there was the 3rd year`s "Horror House". It was actually made very very well. The entire classroom was covered with black trashbags to block out the light. The first room that you go into was very dark and only lit by a lamp and had a bed with blood on it and a desk with a diary that you can read. It would start off all happy and normal and then get distrubing where this guy starts growing weird lumps on his body, and then the writing just gets more and more erratic and larger and messier until there were only two words on the page and then nothing on the pages after that. That was pretty cool and freaky. And then the next part of the room was where the guy had died. So there was a doll that the kids use for CPR or health training that looked pretty real lying on the bed with bloodstains everywhere and freaky-ass pictures on the wall. I tell you, the scariest thing in the entire place were those pictures in my opinion. Those things freaked me out like crazy. Moving on to the next room was the surgery room, more bloodiness, and then lastly the room of death with lots more of those freaky pictures.....I was so happy to go back out into the hallway after that because of those things...Everything else wasn`t that scary, just the pictures. ANyways, I complimented the kids on their work and went back down to the 1st floor with Yuki to watch the performances that all the students were going to do.

First up was the cheer team. They were good! And they had a healthy amount of girls and boys. haha. Then after was some pretty comedic acts. Everyone was laughing hard because it was really really funny. Then some awesome dancing performed by each grade. The dancing was like para-para or johnny`s dances, so not exactly cool like it would be if I could`ve taught them hip hop (hint hint) lol. =P They all did an excellent job nonetheless. In particular was one of the 1st year boys who`s very active in English class. He was very into the dance and because of him the entire audience enjoyed it so much because his face was smiling and it looked like he was having so much fun. The other boys just had bored faces on. I`m pretty sure everyone was watching the active one because he was sooo good! I was very proud of him because he made the audience quite happy with his performance. XD I will try to enlist him in my hip hop routines. lol After all the performances were over Yuki and I decided to head across the street to the Club Hall to view the Judo competition. But it was already over by the time we got there because it happened at the same time as the school festival. But my 5th grade student, Nana, who is the daughter of the Judo master who teaches here won 1st place!! I was so proud of her! My other student had won 2nd! YAY! And then Yuki and I parted ways and went home.

On my way home, I kept thinking how bored I was right now and decided to see if Su was doing anything and rode my way over there. As it turned out Su was doing nothing! ^^ So I was like "Let`s go to Shibetsu to eat and sing Karaoke! And so invite any of the other girls who wanna come along" So only Tama-chan and Mago-chan were able to make it because it`s such a sudden request. I drove Tama-chan and Su to SHibetsu to meet up with Mago-chan who was already in SHibetsu. We decided to go singing first as it would be cheaper before 6pm. We got there at 5pm. We went to a place called Uta-ya 歌屋 where the decor was like that of old historical Japan theme. It was actually very very cool looking inside. AND it was SUPER CHEAP! We ordered the 120 minutes all you can drink set where you can drink all that you like and sing for 120minutes for only 635yen per person! Isn`t that amazing!? Although not as cheap as Korea`s noraebang I have to say.

The room you get is based on the machine you want. There are four types of machines that have different set of songs in them and because we wanted all available songs from different countries we chose the Hyper Wave machine. lol It`s very cool looking and changes colors while you`re singing! hehe. The room we were in was very nice and spacious. The TV was a flatscreen TV and all the mics were sanitized. haha. I have to admit, that`s nice. So all of us took turns singing and drinking crazy amounts of liquids (no alcohol). It was so much fun and I would love to do it again if I can. We then went to go eat at Myu because Tama-chan has never been. At Myu we ordered the ShakiShaki lamb tataki rice bowl シャキシャキラームたたき丼. That was amazingly good and I felt healthy because all the foods had no oil in them. It was basically Lamb tataki on top of a bed of lettuce leaves on top of white rice with strips of the yellow daikon mixed in. SOOO GOOD AND HEALTHY!

WHen all was done, and we had such a wonderful time talking, we all decided to go home. Since Tama-chan and Mago-chan live in the same apt. complex they went home together and so it was me and Su. Su and I decided to go to Seico Mart for ice cream. haha. And then back home to watch my Hong Il Dong drama. I swear that`s all I do at home now is drama watching. =P

October 5th Monday

YAY my beloved nursery kids with the cuties of all cuties. Ooo, I just wanna hug them and hug them and kiss their cute little fat cheeks. o>.
After that I went to the elementary to teach my least favorite 5th grade class. Like I said, it`s not exactly the students, it`s the teacher...I really don`t understand what I`m supposed to do in that class and I don`t feel like I am able properly teach. If I had free reign of teaching instead of having to follow the textbook and not understanding the teacher I would be so much happier. My 6th grade class is so much fun and I teach to the best of my abilities even with the textbook so this class is my saving grace. But today it`s 5th grade. Again, I was confused on what we`re doing and my games didn`t turn out as great because of some problems. Hmm..I just don`t know about this class. I was relieved when it was over. I usually have such great successes and fun in the rest of my classes, just not this one.

During school cleaning time I decided to help the kids clean in which they kept asking me "Are you really sure it`s okay to help us?" and were all really surprised when I decided to help. I`m the only teacher that helps them clean the classroooms instead of just sitting there and monitoring. Actually, I`m the only teacher who does alot of things that the other teachers won`t do with the students. I`ve never had to clean my own school before so I wanted to try it and it gets me to bond with the students better. But the kids thought it was fun and interesting that I was helping them. So I decided to help them clean the floor via a wet towel and running from one end of the room the other while wiping the floor with the towel at the same time. I`m pretty sure it was a funny sight to see. It was actually very difficult and I kept slipping and falling and my shoes kept falling off. I would run from one end of the classroom to the other with my butt sticking up in the air slipping this way and that. Not very attractive, but fun and the kids get a kick out of it. lol

After school, as I was passing by the 1st grade class I glanced over and saw Kitagawa-sensei working on something that looked like the skeleton for a chinese hat. I decided to go in and see what he was making. It turns out he was making the base for a hat for all the 1st graders for their play in the school festival. The kids are doing a play where they`re animals. And so these hats are going to be like their heads and the ears will come on later. I thought it would be great fun to make these things since i had nothing else to do and decided to help out. At the same time, Yuki also came in to help out, so Kitagawa-sensei taught the both of us what to do. I basically spent my evening until 7pm helping out. All the teachers were staying very late in order to prep for the school festival. They were all painting and making crafts etc. Teachers here are amazing!

October 6th Tuesday

Because my high school is on their fall break, which I`m very thankful for, I don`t have any classes there so all day I just stay at the elementary. YAY! =P So today I taught my favorite 6th grade class! THey`re so wonderful and spirited and I am able to be the most expressive in this class. hehe. Even though Watanabe-san speaks most of the time with instructions and stuff and I have to follow the main activties in the txtbk., for my personal games and activities I`m able to explain and talk with them just fine and freely. So today I taught them the "I want to..." phrase where in this context means they want to do an action of some sort. I first started them off with simon says where they only do the action if I say "I want to..". Then we all went outside to play the Harry Potter game. Err...if you don`t know what it is go look it up on genkienglish.net. It`s a really fun game for all the kids to play and it`s kinda like freezetag except using the english phrases. The kids had so much fun with it and were pretty tired afterwards. haha.

After 3rd period I went up to chill with the 6th grade kids and we talked about some pretty funny things. I love spending time with these ones and they`ve all already gotten used to my presence of randomly being somewhere. haha. During cleaning time today I went to look for Anna (one of the 6th grade girls) so I can help clean. Again, she was in the 2nd grade classroom along with Nana and a couple other students. They were like "eh? Theresa-sensei, you`re here to help clean again? Is it alright for you to do this?" I was like "Dude, this is fun and interesting so why wouldn`t I do it?!" ^^ WHen I walked in to the classrrom, however, I heard a "ah! Konnichiwa!" from somehwere and realized that Mr. Wonderful was in the classroom. Of course he would be. It`s his classroom, but I was surprised to see him there for a little bit and was like `Oh no..he`s going to see me being stupid with the kids`, but then was like `eh, f-it. I told the kids I was gonna do it, so I`m gonna do it even if I look weird doing it in front of him.` He was actually also kinda suprised that I`m cleaning and was like "Is it really okay for you to clean?" I told him I wanted to try because we American kids don`t clean our classrooms like how the Japanese kids do it and because it was fun. So again, I did the wipe the floor with the wet towel/me and my body thing. Again, my butt was sticking up in the air, I slipped, but not as much as the 1st time and got faster! I improved! But still prolly looked like a wierd fool in front of Mr. Wonderful...lol And then I decided to help Nana take out the trash and which upon returning Mr. Wonderful saw me with the trash bag and gave a Pffft! laugh and told one of the 5th grade boys to take the trash bag from me and put it in the bin since the teacher shouldn`t be the ones to do that. But at that time I had already placed it in. lol I didn`t think that the teachers didn`t take the trash out, I just did it because I`m used to cleaning at home and doing this kinda stuff...lol The kids just looked at me confused when Mr. Wonderful said that (since they knew that I had wanted to do it) and I too was kinda confused for a bit(because I didn`t exactly understand what he had said at that moment until later), so we were all confused except for him. lol But now I`m a regular cleaner with the kids. haha. They look for me now to mop the floors. =P

After school, I was again walking around with nothing to do when I saw Yuki papier-mache-ing the 1st grade hats that we had made the night before. I was like "HO! Yuki! I too will help!" And she was like "EH?! REally?! Please!!? You`d be a big help since there`s so many of these hats." So again, I spent until 6pm doing this activitiy. THe other teachers were also really surprised that I was still at school helping. I told them that if they need a helping hand I can always do so. Anyways, I invited Yuki to come to my apt Wednesday night for dinner. So I will go find the materials and prep for dinner. Chinese food it is.

Otsukare-sama for reading!! Loves!