2001-10-23 - 5:02 p.m.
Written Monday 22 October... posted Tuesday 23 October.
On Sunday I took my Japanese friend Saori to my favorite place in Kimitsu, the little candy store. (See http://safrom.diaryland.com/010928_28.html). Saori was even more delighted by it than I had initially been because for her, it was filled not with novelty, but with nostalgia. Upon entering, she excitedly proclaimed that this was an “old style” candy shop. She laughed as she spied candy after candy that she hadn’t seen since childhood. Saori soon gravitated toward the one section of the store which on previous visits I had intentionally ignored: the dried seafood snack section. With an excitement which I reserve for perhaps only Cadbury Cream Eggs, Saori began loading up our basket with her childhood favorites such as: dried squid on a stick, a Slim Jim-type sausage made of fish and cheese, and shrimp-flavored cheese puffs. “You can eat this, it’s vegetarian!” she said, waving a small box of seaweed candy in my face, before throwing it in the basket. (I did try it, and it tasted like salt and vinegar potato chips. Or at least that’s what I told myself.) It was so weird to see someone so attached to food that just makes me go “blech.” But then again, Saori hates peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, not to mention Mexican food (!!!), so I guess we’re even.
Today was my first day at my new school. I was very nervous -- more nervous perhaps than I was on my first day at my first school. Needless to say though, things went fine, including my short speech to the school in Japanese which was broadcast live via closed-circuit TV to every classroom. The teachers’ room had a very warm feel to it, and the principal seems like a nice, laid-back guy. When I arrived, there was a tabloid-sized map of the teacher’s room on my desk. The school nurse and an English teacher had drawn the map, complete with a picture of every teacher’s face in little squares where their desks are. The best thing is the caption beside each teacher’s picture: “Mr. Imoto. (Japanese teacher) I am basketball star!” “Ms. Yamamoto. (School clerk). I like cats and the sea. Let’s eat lunch with us!” “I am Ms. Naguchi (Home Economics). I speak and move very fast. I am God mother of school.” A very helpful thing to have -- at my last school, I think I learned the name of only one teacher other than the English teachers.
I did my self-introductory lesson with three classes today, one 3rd year class and two 1st year classes. Despite the English teacher’s warning that the 3rd year class was “very calm” and not “genki” (lively, cheerful), they were great -- none of the attitudes I got from some of the “bad” kids at my last school. Three students had written me page-long welcome letters. The 1st year students were of course very genki, and one class sang me a song as a welcome. Back in the teacher’s room after 6th period, the secretary and nurse passed out snacks for the afternoon’s staff meeting -- three small cakes, candy, and a cup of jelly (like jello). I was given the snacks but then let go -- at 3:00 the English teacher suggested I go home because the staff meeting would be all in Japanese anyway, and the principal said, “iiyo!” (okay!). It seems like this school might be a little more laid back than my last one.
Tomorrow night I have my enkai (welcome party) with my adult conversation class, which should be fun. Then on Wednesday, I have my first elementary school visit. Ja ne...
