Won't you try? Just a little?

Well, the time for introductions has long passed and I feel this space would be better used by an update of my first few months of, what I hope is, many to come.

Living in Higashi, I teach at three schools, combined Elementary-Junior High schools. They range in size from 13 students to 13 students per class, though all my students and teachers don't even reach 200. I've done the introduction at each school, so now it's time to get into real lessons, teaching them things they never knew existed, like the desire to speak English, in addition to a foreigner that can learn their language and get along like anyone else.

Higashi village life is quite different from the city life I spent in Chicago. Clearly, language and transportation are among the major differences, but I'm not complaining. In fact, I love the rural life of Higashi and find myself tense and apprehensive in the "cities" of Okinawa. Though some may see this place as a reprieve from the busy life, a "getting back to the basics," I see it as the life that will be mine for years to come, fully complete and lacking nothing.

I like a lot of things, including almost all types of food. I'll try anything once and decide if I'll keep trying if after that. This includes more than just food. I'm amiable and hardly confrontational, but I know what to stand for. I often go all out for the things I want, sometimes to a fault or a point of embarrassment, but I figure there's no better time to try than that time during which I am living. Because once it's over, it's done. I never want to live with any regret, any sense of "but I could have done so much more." Instead, I'd rather be lying on a slab, smiling into eternity, knowing that nothing and nobody ever stopped me from getting on with what I wanted.

Unfortunately, things don't always go my way. For instance, I had this great idea and vision of a long term project, something along the lines of a lifestyle study for some of the locals here. Starting simply, we'd move into the basics of understanding each other through basic language or whatever means of communication were available. We'd progress as seemed fit, learning more about the other's lives, eventually reaching a point of mutual understanding (I hesitate to say complete, as I've never reached that point myself). All seemed to be going well, that is until I was given the "ixnay" due to time constraints and a general disbelief that it would even be possible. Unable to express myself or my disappointment as well as I would have liked, I submitted, hoping that a change in circumstances would one day allow me to complete the project that I held dearly.

But here it is, 22:22 on a Monday night with a Tuesday holiday (compensation for a long weekend worth of work). Cliff, Elina, and I just watched a good movie with some great lines, had some beers, and easily scarfed the bento. It's good to know that even in the most remote regions of the most remote prefecture of Japan, there's some good company on the other side of a narrow portion of the island.

Sleep calls, and I'll admit, she's very seductive and doesn't always listen to reason. It seems that nobody ever has it all in the perfect order, something is always lacking, even - ha, especially! - with yours truly. 菩武です。

Ichirinsha

That's Japanese for 'unicycle'. I tried my best this evening after school, school three by the way, Arume 有銘, and found that my balance is off. I quit my session early, not because of my discouraging progress, but from the highly encouraged bloodsucking mosquitoes that seem to linger outside waiting to pierce my tasty flesh. Another day, perhaps earlier, before the pests are ready to feast.

In quite a different manner than my very slow progression at learning the unicycle, this past week has simply blown by me, as witnessed by the failure to post any sort of update or story. So let me drag you back a few days and I'll tell you what you, because of me, missed.

The week at Higashi was decent, not excellent; larger classes in all grades made planning activities a little bit easier. I didn't have to worry about everything being done too quickly. In fact, I found myself running out of time. And if that's a recurring problem, I'll be happy to trim material - it's coming up with stuff to do that's the harder of the two issues to resolve. It wasn't a perfect week, though. A certain grade is full of very shy students who are hard to motivate into speaking and one teacher feels the need to translate everything I say - this having led to the instinctive reaction of head-turning toward 先生 when asked simple questions like, "What is your name?" Next visit I'll do my best to get involved in the basketball club or maybe try my hand at a game of after lunch classroom Paper Baseball. I hear ambulance sirens already.

Happily, the week at Higashi was followed by a four day weekend, initially ruined by 台風 (taifuu) 11, which passed right over Okinawa. All accounts stated that it was pretty weak and I'll admit that's true. After a short typhoon party at Cliff's, I drove home later that night, slightly disappointed that my car did not for one moment get lifted up on two wheels by strong winds. The next several days were free, however, so spirits barely dampened, I spent a bunch of time with Elina from Ogimi, which is always a pleasure. Boardgames, movies, food, and beer - no worries there.

"Now, Vaughn," you're probably wondering, "this is pretty interesting stuff you're peddling us. Please tell us about this week; how's it going so far? Any plans for the weekend? Are you homesick yet? Don't delay!"

Well, o.k., just chill for a second.

Day 1, school 3, was great. Only thing I'll work on the next few days is eating with the students. It's just so much fun! Saturday is the Nago City speech contest for the yanbaru region of Okinawa, the north. Junior high school students that do well here will progress to the Okinawa contest, then to Kyushu, on to Japan's, then to fame and fortune, all because of the tireless hours one ALT spent explaining and demonstrating the sounds "th", "aw", "l...", and "r". I must say, Yuki has done a hell of a job memorizing her speech and putting up with my making strange noises in the library after school. At least by not being ashamed myself, I've gotten her to not worry about it either. And it's that ability to try and make it past mistakes and laugh about it that helps us move along, especially when trying to jabber at someone in a foreign language.

Sunday brings Arume School's 運動会 undoukai, or Field Day, which will be my first. I am excited to live vicariously through the physical feats of my students, who haven't yet decided that a well-watched diet of foods and a couple hours with the new Harry Potter might just be a little more rewarding at the moment than sweating my ass off into a sandy Okinawan playing field. But it'll be awesome and it'll be fun to support the kids in their presentation of sports, dance, and other various activities. Until then, I'll continue to fall off my unicycle, get dragged from my apartment to participate in late night tugs-of-war, and occasionally settle for the free coke and chips as a well-balanced dinner. I can't complain, I'm loving it too much. Waisu desu.

PS - Tochimitsu先生 provided me with a kanji version of my name today, bon waisu. All I can currently recall is my first name, 菩武, but it feels good to know it's there.

Surprises

Day 1, Week 2, School: Higashi. And so begins the next step of my continuing responsibilities as English ALT. Today might have been the busiest day I've had in regards to teaching so far. It went really well, too! Here's the deal.

Higashi Elementary and Junior High is the largest of my three schools with 122 students. It is visible from my back door. So I walked to work this morning, taking a grand total of 1 minute, 32 seconds to reach the entrance to the staff section of the school. It was just in time, as Kyoto先生 (vice principal) walked in right behind me. He's also my neighbor, so I can only imagine where he was beforehand or how closely he had been walking behind me without my noticing.

In a much different atmosphere than Takae, things started right away. First period was my introduction to the 7th graders and I'd say it was one of my smoothest. The larger class size of 13 students (there is only one 7th grade student at Takae) allowed me to make use of a great worksheet, recommended by one of the third-year ALTs here in Okinawa. More students also means each individual step takes a little more time, which means I don't need to have five activities ready to go in case time runs quickly. In all, I think the students were really receptive.

Second period free, I prepared for my first elementary lesson at Higashi. Fourth grade was the target, and I went it for high levels of movement and creativity, keeping the actual English discussion pretty tight. My relatively quick intro was followed by a "get to know the students" activity, as they named and drew their names, hobbies, favorite foods, etc. Janken followed immediately...and what a great game! The kids know this game better than anything I've ever seen (lunch tray clean up duties between ten people can be settled in three rounds of Janken and I have no idea how it works). So I divvied out some random animal cards I had and stated that the top three cardholders would have a chance to face me as Janken Master; I even got Shizuka先生 in on the deal (she's the homeroom teacher). The only downside I didn't see was for the kids who lost three games in a row and were out of cards - I'll need to figure out how to make that less of a put off.

Fourth period was the 9th graders class and it went about as smoothly as the 7th grade class did. I changed it up a bit by having a Q&A session, but I found getting the students to vocalize somewhat difficult. I'm definitely working on activities that will promote speech, focusing on getting the idea across first, then moving toward proper syntax. If they can't even feel comfortable speaking and making mistakes in the first place, then there really isn't going to be any noticeable speech development taking place.

Tomorrow brings a slightly slower day, with ... wait, no it doesn't. I've got 2nd grade elementary, 7th grade introduction, and I think I'm back in the classroom for the 9th graders. I'm not sure if it's because of the field day practices we have this week, but it seems I'm only hitting the junior high classes twice a week. I'll have to ask Takako先生 about that.

Oh, by the way, a good number of the kids I'm teaching live in my housing development, the danchi (団地). I think and hope that a few weeks of good classes will make them less shy. While I don't plan on offering weekend pizza parties or movie nights, a few hours of random childish fun sounds like a great idea. What I really need to do is get my ass on that unicycle Ben left me.

In other quick news, I thwarted a huge infestation of something by noticing a larval nest in my trashcan. Two hours later, the bins are clean, the organisms are outside of my house, and I can sleep soundly knowing that a horrible disgusting colony of insects (think Temple of Doom, when Short Round makes the adept statement, "Indy, sounds like fortune cookie!") will never live to see the light of my apartment.

Keeping Track

Here it is: the end of week one. I really really enjoyed it! For just a second, let's think about this JET Programme idea. What other highly respected and competitive program accepts a person in a teaching role based on a couple of questions, an essay about their desire to come to Japan, and a 30-minute interview with some random people who will never have another thing to do with said applicant? After that, what kind of program takes these people, puts them in almost random assignments, giving both applicant and employer a crap shoot of a chance that all may go to hell in a number of weeks or months? So far, I'd have to say a pretty good one.

But these are just my views based on five weeks or so of excellent experiences in the lush beauty of Higashi Village, northern Okinawa. While I'm no soothsayer and I can hardly tell the future, I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm getting myself into and what kind of person I am. These intuitions, while far from perfect, have given me the sense that this year is going to be a good one. In an email to a friend earlier today, I told her "I think I may have finally found something fun, challenging, and meaningful." In all the things people look for in a career, what more could one ask for, what better combination than these?

This statement is perhaps one of the most true I've uttered in a while. Why else would I find myself spending 11 willing hours a day at my first school, when work clearly ends at 5:00? For sure, lunch is superb and there's a new guy in class, but after school is when the kids really go for making the connection. Amidst track practice, shot-put, long jump, plyometrics, and a little bit of baseball, there's something there that just doesn't happen within the 50 minutes of teaching, as fun as it may be.

So as we stood in a circle after stretching, most everyone made some sort of comment on the day regarding the work put in or the specific efforts made by students and teachers alike. Today, Kai (one of the eldest junior high school students) asked me to say something, and it went kind of like this: "Thank you for an amazing first week. I'm already sad to think about being gone for two weeks, but I know that when I get back the welcome will be amazing. Thank you and keep working hard."

Before leaving, I got invited to go swimming in the Arakawa River next weekend. I'm meeting up with a few of the teachers and we're heading off for an afternoon of who knows what. Kind of like signing up and accepting a position on the JET Programme with no real idea about what's going to happen, I'm really excited! Waisu desu.

Baltimore is the new Voldemort

Today was Day 1 of teaching in Japan, Day 1 of teaching at Takae (高江) school. Takae is located northeast of my apartment, reached in 15 minutes by driving along the coastal highway, Route 71. It's a beautiful drive overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the many beaches that spot the islands coast. So there I drove, starting, for real this time, my new job as English teacher and international culturizer.

Though no English classes were held, we had a nice ceremony in the gymnasium of the school. We have 14 students, assuming everyone was in attendance today. They're spread over several grade levels of elementary and junior high school, so the largest class is three students, with many grade levels containing only one student. I've imagined this to be both a challenge and a great opportunity to do some amazing one-on-one teaching; I'm sure it will be both.

I sat in on this morning's junior high music class, where the six students were practicing their sanshin, which I assume carried over from the first trimester. I joined them in their practice, and as for the first tune, I picked up the introduction pretty quickly. Takako先生 even let me take one home to practice! though I hope I can turn this into a regular thing and save the money otherwise spent on my own instrument. One of my goals is to learn to play the sanshin well and to play it often. This would expand my ability at instruments to three, two if you don't count the kazoo.

After lunch, I officially met the only first grader, Mizuki. She's cute and adorable and never wants to let go of my hand. If I do let go of her hand, it's only because I've tossed her up into the air and she is in a state of motionlessness for a brief second. She's a tiring one, but I think the energy she has will be great for doing the many games we have planned for the lower grade English classes. I'm quite surprised at how much the young ones can understand, and how much they use it! I suppose the presence of a tall, English-speaking noob makes it easier to use, and really, that's all the encouragement I need.

I had a blast today! I'm even more excited - and gladly less nervous - about teaching these kids and working with my co-teachers in all aspects of school life. Sometimes, the things that have fallen into my life have been so good as to almost seem unreal. I'm not that infatuated with Higashi that it feels dreamlike, but I do feel good, real good, a good that is real is what I mean, and I think that's the best kind of good to have. Here's to living it right and teaching the kids something special, even if it has nothing to eventually do with English. Waisu desu.