First Week of School ^^

Lets see.. my first official week of school started last Tuesday on the 1st of September. I went to Koshino Jr. High school. I gave an introduction speech in front of the school in retarded four year old Japanese and then was ready to start the day. I only had two classes because the kids were preparing themselves for the sports day activities that coming Saturday. I had a absolutely wonderful time during these two classes. We played the true and false game with money. This game was my introduction speech as all the questions were about me. Much like back home I tend to be fond of the boys over the girls. They are more open to mess up if they say the English words wrong and they are quite funny. The girls are sweet and mostly very quite. There are a few that have some real spunk and I must say I enjoy that. Other then my two classes that day I spent most of my time watching them practice out on the field. The Japanese are truly serious about Sports day. The kind of work and discipline and thought that goes into the preparation of sports day is amazing. Also the kids come up with the majority of the things they were doing during the cheer competition and such so the responsibility level is high. Nevertheless, the day went so well that on my way home I was on cloud nine. The weather contributed to my mood since it was quite sunny and everything seemed to glow a brighter color then usual. I even took pictures of random rice fields and house on my way back home because I was so happy. Went I got home I wanted to go out and celebrate my first day but everyone was quite sleep. So I decided to take a nap and ended up sleeping clear to the next day of work.

Wednesday 2nd:
Today I went to Chuo Elementary school. I had four or five classes. A few of the kids recognized me from the children centers I had went to during their summer vacation. Needless to say I got fairly tackled. Well not in hugs but more like random clings to my hands and arms. I'm not sure that the Japanese really hug each other all that much. Needless to say that this day was rather enjoyable as well. I had power point presentations for the kids and they were all quite impressed that me, a foreigner and a black one at that could like video games, anime and so on. Japanese children are so ridiculously cute that I must stick with my theory that they are genetically engineered to look cute, otherwise it would simply not be fair. During my lunch break some of the girls came into the office and gave me a origami flower with a ornate panda sticker in the middle and told me it was a present for me. They then asked the principle and the Japanese English teacher I work with if they could take me and play. Of course I agreed and we spent some time making random origami objects. Needless to say I was rather genki myself and rode home planning once again to celebrate my first days at work. I ended up going out with Rosa to this “steak” restaurant for a hardy meal. However I am forced to say that although the meal was good, there is no such thing as real beef in Japan. I LIVE in the country and I've never seen a cow. >.> After dinner we headed back home.

Thursday 3rd:
This was Takase Jr. High school, and I had no classes whatsoever. I haven't met any of my students at Takase because they were all practicing for their sports day as well. However I gave the principle his Italian tie I bought as omiyage(gift) and he put it on immediately. It seems he really like it, and it looked really nice on him at that. Later on in the day he invited me down to his office to get to know me better. Toshi( the English teacher I work with for that school) came with me as the mediator/translator for the both of us. Let me say that it must be nice to be a principle in Japan. That office was flippin dank. I mean plush leather furniture and large windows, plaques and carpet, and cherry wood items and furniture. I was like “whoa....” He served us dango(japanese sweet), and coffee while we talked. He seems to be a really nice guy and it was nice that he went through the trouble to get to know me. I have to say that though I had a nice day, it was damned hard to stay awake when I had nothing to do for around 8 hours. I went home and honestly I don't remember what I did when I got home so I'll skip that.

Friday 4th:
I return to Koshino, but like Takase Jr. High they were preparing for sports day so all classes were canceled so they could practice and prepare. For most of th day at school, I just went around saying hi to the students and watching them practice. One thing is for sure however... I could never do what these kids do. No wonder most of these kids are in shape... if they weren't they'd never make it through their PE classes. If America did half the things these kids did in PE the weight problem would drop significantly. Come on America... hop on it! So once again another good day at work. Friday didn't come to an end after work however. Me, Rosa, Lawrence and several other coworkers including my boss Fujita-san all met up at this nice Karaoke bar around 7pm to welcome a new ALT. This was one hell of a party. I walked in and paid my 2000yen and then got paid for my summer camp help. Then we went into the room and had a whole bunch of snacks and alcohol. MY boss and Yoko also brought a special jug of sake with them that was an rather high in alcohol content. They said it was strong and that they wanted me to try it because I had mentioned before that I could take strong liquor. When I took some of it and didn't bat an eye, they were highly impressed. Since this was a karaoke bar, there was lots of singing to be had, and finally everyone got to hear me sing. My first song was rather shaky because I was hella nervous, but after three cans of something and everyone having a good time I loosened up and just sung songs. Let's just say went I sung Crazy by Gnarles Barkely they had a fit. From that moment on (My drunk boss) told me that he loved my singing and only wanted to hear more of my singing. -^_^- It was flattering but a little unnerving all at the same time. I received ridiculous amounts of praise throughout the night as I kept on singing other songs. On top of that my boss kept screaming out my name and other people gave that “OMFG where the hell have you been hiding this voice” look. It’s nice but I don’t want to be invited to too many karaoke parties. XD So towards the end of the night my bosses wife came in and well she was interesting >.> She got kinda drunk and hugged a lot of people. Then she came to me >_<;;;;; Well she hugged me waaaaay too much and waaaaay too tight and waaaaaay to long and she kissed my cheek about a dozen times and kinda landed a few dead on the lips. THANK GOD she was drunk cause I would have been pissed! XD MOVING ON….. I have ice-cream!!! which makes everything better. Finally it was time to go and I got home and for the most part passed straight out!

****Pics will come next post!!!