Brian’s Japan Adventure

October 27th, 2007

A Halloween Horror Story

Yes, today was the big Halloween party at the language school. I got up and changed shirts three times, not really deciding on what to wear. When I finally left the house, I turned back and changed one more time. I ended up with exactly what I wore to the meeting yesterday; I figure that way she would get what she was expecting. As I was wandering around the house waiting to leave, I looked out the window and noticed that the trees on the mountain aren’t all green anymore. There are a few red and yellow ones mixed in now. There isn’t so much color that I think it’s worth taking a picture yet, but changes are coming.

The ten o’clock hit, and it was time to go. As I rode down the street, it occurred to me that this is my first “assignment” in Japan that hadn’t involved a train or a mountain; just a simple and short bike ride. I need more of those! I arrived and there was a man waiting for me out in front of the building; it was exactly the building I thought it was, so finding it was a non-issue. I parked the bike and went inside. Shoes off; uh-oh, I didn’t bring slippers along. Everyone was in sock feet, so that was a non-issue too. Children arrived and they all said “hello” or “good morning” so I knew they were going to have at least some English ability.

One little boy, age 4, was dressed like a black and yellow bumblebee. ALL the rest were dressed as witches in black pointy witch hats. I heard the name “Harry Potter” mentioned about sixty-two dozen times today, so I assume Harry Potter Witches are the in-thing for Japanese Halloween. Everyone arrived on time and we started promptly at ten-thirty. Japanese, even the children, are notoriously punctual. I started off by introducing myself, and showing pictures of Dayton, Baseball, the house, and so forth. Then the first group of children stood up and I “interviewed” them with questions supplied to me by their teacher. Here is a nearly exact transcript of the questions:

“What is your name?”
“Kozumi”
“My name is Brian. What kind of fruit do you like?”
“I like grapes.”
“I like grapes too. How old are you, Kozumi?”
“8”
“Eight! Wow! What school do you go to Kozumi?”
“Seichi Elementary School.”
“What grade are you in at Seichi?”
“I am in third grade.”
“What can you do?”
“I can swim.” (most of them gave this answer, so I assume they all just had lessons.)
“What subject do you like?”
“Math.” (There were varying answers, but math was the most common.)
“It’s nice to meet you Kozumi.”
“It’s nice to meet you too Brian.”

I think there were four of them in the first group. When the questions were done, they song two songs and then sat down. Then to older boys stood up, answered the same questions and sang two songs. Then two older girls did the same. This took the first half hour.

For the second half-hour, we talked about “stuff” including pets, favorite foods, most hated foods, games, brothers and sisters, and other very simple things. The teachers helped some of the students, but everyone spoke and everyone had fun.

During the last half-hour, we played bingo, and I spun the little basket and called out the numbers. I sat on the floor with them, and they started out in a circle around me of about four feet diameter. By the time the game was over, they were all over me, eagerly waiting for the next number. The boy dressed like a bee was on my lap, which I didn’t mind except that his little plastic-ball-and-spring antenna kept beating me in the face. Finally, everyone won and they all picked a prize from a bag of prizes. The I went and stood in the hallway behind a closed door, whole all the children knocked and said “Trick-or-treat” at which point I gave them a little bag of candy. Then their parents did the trick-or-treat thing too, nd most of them couldn’t keep from laughing through it.

Then it was done, and everyone said goodbye and left. The owner told me to come back at two pm, two hours away. I didn’t really want to come home, so I went to Co Co Ichiban for lunch. For some reason, I just wasn’t in the mood for it after all and ended up leaving a bit of it unfinished, which is unusual for me. After eating, I hopped on my bike and rode past the school to see what was on the other side. Wow. I didn’t have much time to explore, but there is a bunch of neat new places there. If the weather tomorrow is good, I have somewhere new to explore. Yay!

Then I went back, and this time, it was all adults. The youngest was a junior high and the next youngest was high school student, both sisters. The rest were adults. We talked about favorite things to do and to eat, places I should visit, places I have been, lots of food talk, the benefits of learning English and the difficulties with it too. The discussion was nothing new, nothing that I haven’t described here before with adult learners.

When we had talked for about an hour and ten minutes, we played Bingo too. This time, instead of calling the numbers, I got to play. And yes, I won! I pulled out a mystery prize from the bag and waited for the others to win too (everyone eventually gets a prize). Lastly, the main teacher told me to go back to the hallway and do the trick-or-treat thing for the adults too. That wasn’t on the agenda, but the first group liked it so much, she wanted to do it with this group too. Yes, they enjoyed it as well.

Then we were done. Everyone put their shoes on and left. They had me sign a receipt and paid me, and then they told ME to knock on the door, and they gave me candy too. Ha! Nope, I didn’t see that coming. On the way out, they mentioned something about a Christmas party, and I told them I’d love to do it, and that was that.
The Drums! The Drums!

On the way home, I noticed that there are little hanging paper lanterns everywhere, and they weren’t there this morning. I wonder if it’s Halloween or something else? As I typed the majority of this blog, I heard drumming, continually growing louder and louder. At first I thought it was some jerk with his stereo on too loud, but eventually it passed right by my door. It was some kind of hand-drawn cart with men and children drumming. I have no idea what it was for, but I intend to ask around Monday. I got several good shots of the cart and people. Obviously it’s some kind of traditional festival, but I wasn’t expecting anything.

[update]

OK, there were multiple carts, large and small, each being pulled by a separate group. Every group was accompanied by many children, all wearing a blue jacket with red kanji on them. The “group leader” for each cart kept yelling something like “O-Shay!” and then everyone would chant “O-Shay!” after him. This went on for at least three hours, and I sat on the front steps watching the whole time. It was great. I still have no idea what it was for, but it was fun.

Slackass: Demoted To Just Plain ‘Ass’.

Marc came home toward the end of the whole thing and he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. When I told him about it, he didn’t sound too interested, but said there was a baseball game on and rushed inside. When they finally walked by for the last time I tapped on the window. He came out, watched them walk by, and simply said, “OK” and went back inside, apparently in a pissy mood about something. I neither know nor care what his problem is. As a matter of fact, I think that was the last time I will bring anything interesting to his attention. A few days ago I knocked on his door to get him up for a class, and he got pissy about that too. I think I am just about at the stage where I not only start pretending Marc doesn’t exist, but I actively start avoiding him. The only problem with that plan is that if my roommate doesn’t exist, then who keeps making the messes in the living room???

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 27th, 2007 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Japan, Teaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.