Lost in Ogawa

So I return to Ookawa Elementary for the second and third time this past week. The second day started up great. I was relieved that we didn’t have to exercise and run in the morning since it’s getting really chilly here. The news says its around 18 Deg. Celsius. I don’t really know what that is in Fahrenheit but thats a pretty low number to me, its got to be cold! I get to school and many students of all grades are yelling for me, “Tony Sensei, Tony Sensei!”

Sidenote: In Japan, a teacher or one of higher educational ranking, such as the principal, the superintendent, the title sensei is attached after their name. However, you would never refer to yourself as “sensei.” People can refer to you as sensei but you cannot use that word for yourself. If you want to tell others that you are a teacher, you would use the word “kyooshi,” which also means teacher. Why the difference usage? Using the word sensei on yourself gives the persona that you’re arrogant and a big shot whereas kyooshi is a way of humbling yourself and your position. Japan is a culture big on humbling oneself and honoring and boasting others.

Anyway, as I was saying, the day started out fine. I had my regular cup of hot green tea in the morning and as I finished teaching my second class, some teachers told me to join them out there for recess. Apparently, it wasn’t recess persay but the same exercise routine I did the first day, stretching and then running. I have no idea why it was after second period, maybe they thought it would be funny to screw with the foreigner and throw him off muhahaha….Ok maybe not. This time I tried to have more fun by chasing after some first and second graders like i was going to catch them and tickle them. Some of them even purposedly ran close to me provoking me to chase them. There were 2 or 3 second grader girls that ran along side me and started talking to me like I knew what they were talking about when in fact I had NO clue what they were saying. They also did the cutest thing by holding on to my hands while we ran together, one on each side awwwwww… And then I noticed these little mischevious first grader boys running behind me with their hands together and their index and third fingers pointing out getting ready to charge at me from behind. I was forewarned about this phenemenon called “kancho” where they try to shove their little fingers up your you know where where the sun don’t shine. It’s like a game to them and they think its fun!! Luckily I caught this one boy as he was getting ready to charge so I decided to let him run in front of me instead. He seemed happy and excited with hands flaring in the air and the next thing he did, which i never saw it coming, he turned around and took a jab at my jewels and ran away! This is the SECOND time I got punched in that area and this time it was a boy and it was a bigger impact! I was going to go return the favor but I then realized it wouldn’t be a fair fight. The rest of the day went on without a hitch.

The third day went by as usual but there was no stretching or running. I think they’re messing with my head! Or maybe because it was raining on and off and the grounds were wet, who knows. Nothing really exciting or unusaul happened except maybe I made sweet potato biscuits with the handicapped class and saw the teacher who beat me in ping pong the other day cleaning some type of gun in the teacher’s room with a can of Japanese version WD40 while asking me if I possessed gun(s) in the United States! All I thought about was asking him if I could borrow that can to oil up my ride. The chains were getting rusty from the rain. And I did, being more thick-skinned than I usually am in the States.

Well, I’m won’t be coming back to Ookawa Elementary until 2005. I’m going to miss those little bastards…Oops, I mean KIDs!

Today was another one of those days where I teach at a local elementary school in Ogawa. Off the top of my head, I believe there are six elementary schools in Ogawa and each ALT visit each school maybe 2-3 times over the course of a semester. I guess it’s more like a visitation that we do. The reason we don’t teach at elementary school that often is because English is not part of the elementary school curriculum. We’re only there to give the kids exposure to English and maybe teach them the very basics like numbers and alphabets and play games with them. When I first chose to teach elementary school, I thought it would be the easiest thing. I figured, hey, they’ll believe anything I say and the little kids will be easy to teach….Wrong! They’re actually harder to teach than the junior high kids. I have to expend more energy and speak much louder for longer periods of time to elementary kids. That’s why I sometimes don’t look forward teaching at elementary schools but the kids are so little and cute as hell!

However, today was somewhat extraordinary. It was my first visit to Ookawa Elementary School. In the morning when school started, the entire school congregated out in the school grounds. I was told to briefly introduce myself in front all the students, maybe 200 to 300 of them. No matter how many times I’ve done it, it’s always a little intimidating. Somehow, I always get through it because by now, I’ve done it a billion times in front of staffs and students alike for the past 3 month. I just can’t believe I’m still introducing myself and not only that, I’m doing it in Japanese!! (Go ahead, you may applause). What followed was rather different from all my past experiences at other elementary schools. We started doing stretches together as a school and we ran around school tracks for about 7 mins. or so. I nearly passed out! This exercising before classes reminded me of a movie called “Gung Ho” starring Michael Keaton. If you saw the movie, you know what I’m talking about (right Mat?).

Today in addition to teaching various classes of different grades, I was scheduled to join the special education/handicap class with 2 teachers and 3 students. This was the first time I’ve ever done a special ed. class. After today, I wish I had the chance to do more. Despite their learning disabilities and handicaps, these kids are so wonderful and cute. Apparently today was this girl’s birthday and we sang the birthday song in English, had some jello, and took some pictures together. Of all days not to bring my camera! Then for the rest of the day, I joined two classes for P.E., rather odd I thought but I taught them a few words and played dodge balls. Yeah, I got them good!! Haha..despite the fact I really didn’t know the Japanese version of the game, the basic concept was the same. After school ended and the kids went home, many teachers came up to me and asked me if I knew how to play table tennis or as I like to say Ping Pong! Apparently, the whole staff was going to play ping pong and they asked me to join them. Next thing I knew, I was partaking in the staff ping pong tournament and the winner would receive some type of prize. I cleared first round by taking down a female teacher but I lost by a point in the second round to a male teacher. After my defeat, I bowed, smiled and said thank you like you’re suppose to. Meanwhile, I thought to myself, “I’m going to go slash his car tires now” haha. Eventually the teacher that beat me took second place overall. They gave prizes to the top 3 players and they had one more prize to give away and for no apparent reason, they gave it to me. I call this prize the “consolation foreigner prize.” Sometimes it’s good to be a foreigner. They treat you real nice, almost like a celebrity. Did I mention some of my students asked for my autograph? After ping pong, everybody retreated to the staff room for desert and tea and I called it a day! Round two tomorrow…

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