2001-11-29 - 9:06 p.m.
Seems I’m not the only one leading a double-life at work. This afternoon I was invited to a “secret tea party” with the school nurse, the “tea lady,” and the school clerk. These three women, who I sit with everyday at lunch, seem to do most of the behind-the-scenes work which makes the school run smoothly. At the appointed hour, the tea lady brought me down to a small kitchen where the other two attendees were sitting around a small table. The reason for the secrecy of our tea party was not only that we were “partying” on school time, but that the school nurse wanted to show us pictures of her weekend trip. She had taken a day of vacation on Thursday in addition to the holiday on Friday and went with her husband and small daughter to Okinawa, the Hawaii-like islands in southern-most Japan. However, we at the party were the only ones to know about it, as many of her co-workers would not find it appropriate to take such a vacation in the middle of the school year. We ate her “secret omiyage (souvenir cookies),” looked at her pictures (note to self: next trip, Okinawa) and talked about her trip. The school clerk had also taken a secret vacation, to the northern island of Hokkaido -- we’ll view those pictures in secret tomorrow. One of the students in my adult education class is also a school nurse, and she is a secret vegetarian. She hides her dietary choice from her colleagues lest they think her strange.
Today the 2-nensei (8th grade) teacher let me have the whole period to do whatever I wanted, because it was my last lesson with the kids. After doing several shogakko (elementary) school visits where I’m “on stage” all day, I feel much more capable of filling 45 minutes time. I decided to bring out that “Winter Holidays” worksheet I made a couple of weeks ago and introduce Hanukkah. It actually went over pretty well because I kept it pretty simple, making comparisons between the two holidays -- “On Christmas, families decorate a Christmas tree... On Hanukkah, families light candles in a menorah.” By drawing pictures on the board and equating the two holidays, I think that the students actually understood it. Later in the day, I was told to “explain American Christmas” to the 7th grade students, which was actually pretty fun because of all the strange American customs like putting out stockings for Santa Claus and Santa coming through the chimney and all. Many Japanese “celebrate” Christmas -- in a purely secular way -- by having a Christmas cake and (I’m not making this up), Kentucky Fried Chicken. They were shocked to learn that this is not an authentically American way to mark the holiday. They also seemed really grossed out by the teacher’s description in Japanese of putting stuffing inside a turkey, which is funny in a country where they sell dried squid at candy stores (not that stuffing a turkey isn’t really gross). It’s all relative, eh?
So much has been escaping my diary lately... like how this seems to be “observation season.” Two weeks ago, I had a lesson observed by six visiting principals who stood ominously at the back of the room while I worried I would mess up when I read the date in English. Last Tuesday was a big day at my school because sixty teachers from all over Kimitsu came for a day of conferences and class visits. About twenty teachers stood in the back of two of my lessons, which the Japanese teacher had scripted beforehand, even making the kids rehearse the game the day before. It was kind of like a Japanese edition of “This Is Your Life,” as I scanned the back of the room and tried to place all the teachers I’d met in the past four months at various schools and functions. Among them was the teacher who’d taken me to the O-bon fireworks back in August, just two weeks after I got to Japan. How strange everything seemed then. These days I have to remind myself that things are strange, or ask myself if things are strange, such as: “Do they have hot coffee in a can in America, too? No, I don’t think they do. I guess that IS strange.” Not strange in a bad way, of course. Last Wednesday I went to a JET/Japanese English Teacher conference in Tateyama, a seaside town about two hours south of Kimitsu. There, I got to observe some model lessons, all the while feeling sympathy for the nervous teachers who were trying to do their job in front of dozens of onlookers. Then last Thursday, I had a surprise elementary school visit sprung on me. It turned out to be parent’s day, so I had moms and dads observing my classes (and of course I made them participate). That day I worked with the woman who had organized the Halloween party back in October. Together we taught a 90-minute English session in the gym with 70 3rd graders and their parents. Thankfully, she had the whole thing already planned out.
Tomorrow is my last day at junior high school #2. I have to do my “good-bye television broadcast” -- a short speech to the kids over closed-circuit TV. Then on Monday I start at junior high #3, which is a gloriously long 40 minute bike ride. I’m just going to look at it as 80 minutes of exercise a day. This next school is supposed to be one of the best, so I’m looking forward to it. I’m off to make Rice Krispies Treats to bring into the teachers tomorrow -- actually they only have Cocoa Krispies here for some reason. Maybe because they eat so much rice anyway that the idea of a straight-up rice cereal is boring?
