Ahh! sorry!

I know, I know....it has been a while since I posted. I honestly blame my lack of regular internet access. Many things have happened, so I think to updated you all on what Matt and I have been up to I will need to make this a 2 part entry....the second part (about Tokyo!) only when I have more time. So for now, I will try to entertain you all with pics and stories of my first time experiencing a Japanese JHS festival weekend.
Every morning since I began working at my JHS I have walked across the school parking lot to the sound of children singing...the same three songs. Every week I have worked at my JHS has been a "special shorten class schedule." Then after class I would see (when it wasn't raining) hundreds of kids practicing strange "sports" out side. If it was raining I would see hundreds of kids running around inside, usual with paint brushes or construction paper in hand. These weeks of preparation were all for a two day event called the school festival. The 283 kids at my school must have spent 12 days at school working toward this festival. I honestly wasn't very excited about going, since it meant I would be at school all day Saturday and Sunday, but once there I can not say it was a bad experience. Below will be the pics of what happened, along with my explanations.

Okay this doesn't acutally have much to do with the festival, but it does have lots to do with the JHS. For several days in a row, I have been able to see Mount Fuji from my school, and even on my drive to school. To be honest, it has been pretty exciting to see, and so clearly. In the mornings it is so clear, though unforutnately I didn't have my camera on me until the afternoon, which means this pics of Mount Fuji isn't as clear as I would like...but its still there! =)

So all the painting I saw the students doing over the past few weeks has been for decorations for the HUGE gym during the festival. Along with decorations, each class (there are 3 grades with 3 classes each -9 classes total) created their own flag with a class moto. The above pic is of class 3-3's flag (3rd years 3rd class). I thought it was funny that they chose to use the Japanese train exit sign as their focus. Many of the flags had English on them also.


The first days events were all held in the gym. The day consisted of team spirit exercises and sentimental pieces on the fun time they have had together so far this school year, along with class plays...which had lots and lots of dancing. My elective English 4 class did a shadow puppet show which I video taped and edited together to present at the festival. At first it was thought that I would actually have to perform, live, with them on pretty short notice. I am so glad my school has a new 30GB hard drive Sony handy cam. I had lots of fun filming and editing that play. =)
Anyway...there were lots of plays and dancing and loud music and team spirit etc. At the end each class sang a song for the audience (the teachers and parents). Finally, all 283 students got up front and sang "Hallelujah" for everyone. I was impressed by how much they had improved in their English singing skills. Though, "and he shall reign forever and ever" didn't exactly sound like I am used to it. =P

Wow...all that writing and I just finished talking about the first day of the festival.

Okay...I promise I will finish the festival....

DAY 2!!!!

day 2 was a bit more fun for me. Less watching plays in a language i don't understand, and more laughing at my students acting crazy during tug of war and other games.


Remember those flags i mentioned earlier that the classes made, you can see them above, held in front of each class. Those flags became a big deal for the day two events.

before the games begin, everyone did exercises on the sports grounds.

The morning consisted of girls of each class in the gym playing basketball against one another. Their scores actually mattered towards the days goal of best performing class and classes. There was the best performing class and then there was the best performing group of classes so class 2 would be all the 2 classes, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2, so you have all age groups competing as one as well as against each other.

The boys spent the morning playing soccer for the coveted points.



Here is another class flag. some students spent the majority of their morning switching out to wave this flag around to cheer on their classmates.

This is one of the art pieces the students worked on for the festival...though I was unable to take pics at the end, I am sad to say they actually burned this, along with anything else they made that was burnable and then we all danced around it (folk dance...guy leading girl) as a way of closing out the festival. I felt like it was a shame to burn something they worked so hard on, but they didn't seem to mind. =)

Of all the games they played that you wouldn't see in the states, this one would never make it to a US school field day, too many injuries, too many upset parents. The idea of the game is to get as many of the items from the center line over to your teams zone. There are two teams with these items (mostly tires since they can hold up to the attacks best) in between them. When the gun sounds everyone runs to grab a tire. Needless to say some people grab the same tire and then fight it out. By the end there are usually one 2 tires left to get and 30 kids to fight between them. People got hurt, and dirty, but man it looked like some fun, rough fun, but fun non the less. =)



The other games included:
jump rope with an entire class at once, which was pretty fun to watch
Tug of War that had different rules then what I was used to...the students had several ropes to fight over...but it only made things more interesting
Mukude (sp?) race, where each class (boys then girls) are tied together and then race the other teams
All in all I say I had much more fun on day 2. =)

I know, I know....blogging has been on the back burner

Hello all!
Sorry its been so long since my last post. Let us see if I can quickly wrap up what has been happening since my birthday. I had my first week of school, where I did the same introduction lesson oh, about 30,000,000,000 times. =P I still have one more school to go to, my second elementary school. So, after next week, I will be officially done introducing myself and my home. Part of my intro has been to explain that I am a vegetarian. I tell them what it means and that "many people in Asheville are Vegetarian" Ha! I thought it was pretty interesting to show these kids that there are people who not only speak a different language but have completely removed, what the kids consider to be, what makes a meal a meal, meat/fish. Ha!
Moving on...the little kids are very cute, 1st and 2nd graders especially. It makes me want to be a elementary school teacher...in Japan at least. BUT these kids have yet to realize that I do not speak Japanese. As I walk the halls I get swarms of children asking me all sorts of questions in their soft spoken, yet quite fast, Japanese. Sigh. I wish I could understand them! That is just more motivation for me to study the language.
Okay...the rest of the blog will be the usual. I will share a picture and a (hopefully) brief explanation....brief because I am using my neighbors internet still.

so on my way to pick up matt in Kofu, I saw Mt. Fuji! I am not sure how well you will be able to see it, but the mountain in the background is Mt. Fuji. I was excited to finally see it. I live on the completely other side of the prefecture, so it is very rare for it the sky to be clear enough to see it.


Matt went into a store to kill some time, when we saw these great "Engrish" slippers. That's right people...it says "where are you doing?"! hee hee!



These are the promised cake pics that I took on my birthday. I was craving a Ingles or Harris Teeter style cake. But, alas, there aren't any of those places near our home here. To get a real birthday cake here, you have to order pretty far in advance from what I understand. These three slices of cake were a nice substitute, but still not the same. =P

Here it is! one of the famous cigarette vending machines. This one requires a certain id to be swiped to get the cigs, but have no fear under aged hooligans, there are plenty of beer vending machines with out any id requirements, just pay your 200 yen and let the drinking commence! (ps. I do not condone underage drinking k? but I do think its pretty funny to see beer and cigarettes being sold like this. I have a friend who lives near a vending machine that sells eggs...eww.)

Key chains are big here. You put them on your cell phone, your Nintendo ds, your keys...etc. You find lots of these key chain machines in Japan. I thought this one was pretty funny. They are selling mos burger key chains. Mos burger is the Japanese Burger King. So if you wanted, you could have a hot dog, or a hamburger attached to your cell phone...sooooo coool! =P

Lastly, Matt and I went to Kofu to experience the "I love Kofu" Festival....really, that is what it was called...in English and everything. We ate festival food (yay pork free Yakisoba!!) and watched Taiko (Japanese drumming) on the main stage. We eventually ended up at a karaoke place. It was...interesting. =P (I can't sing)