Pen Pals

So I'm doing a pen pal exchange with one of my classes and I thought I'd share a part of one of the letters that a student wrote.  At first I was sad, then I was happy, then I was confused.  But without further ado, here it is:

English is difficult.  And I hate my English teacher.
She is very very crazy.
But I like English <333 I like Thomas <333 wara.

Boo yea!  Then I looked up "wara" and it means "straw."  I don't know what to think about this.

For a bit of context, I teach each class with another teacher.  So I thought at first she was talking about me when she said "I hate my English teacher."  But she was just talking about the other teacher.

Oma Tuna Festival

Well, since I posted a video on youtube, and plastered my facebook profile with Oma related things, I might as well complete the trifecta and make a blog post about it.  Also, I will try to make this nice and fancy like I see other people doing what with the photos and videos and what not.

The trip was awesome, three of us went.  It was me, another teacher from Noheji (藤森先生 Fujimori sensei) and his friend Ｊｕｎｅ (I don't know the kanji for his name).  Here's a picture of us 3.

I need to get my peace sign a little higher.

So we go to Oma, a 2 hour drive.  And let me tell you, the car ride was something to write home about.  It begins (about 10 minutes into the drive) with an innocent English song on June's super fancy Japanese DVD/CD/GPS thing in his car.  I'm like "ooh English, cool, who's your favorite singer?"  He says "hehrrieedoof" and I'm like, hmmm, not really sure if I know that singer.  Then he pops in a DVD of his favorite singer.  It begins with some crazy intro thing, then it hits me, Hillary Duff.  The next hour and 50 minutes consisted of random Hillary Duff videos being played instead of his GPS being displayed on the car.  This caused us to miss a few turns and having to pause the video so he could bring up the GPS.  Each time the video was paused, he apologized like he had just accidentally chopped off my hand.  I wasn't even really watching, because I had awesome views outside to look at.  Japan's mountains are something I will miss.

<3 Japanese countryside

In any case, after the DVD exclusive Hillary Duff music video of her hit single Fly, we arrived in a nice small town on the northern tip of Japan's main island.  I got to see for my own eyes a nice traditional tuna chopping and serving.  If pictures are worth a thousand words, and this video gets 30 frames per second, this video is 151 seconds long, that makes for a solid 4530 pictures, thus saving me 4,530,000 words.  Anyways, heres the video. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgEIHtLOe3s

Bonus extra at the end of the video, random people dancing at the festival.  Sweet.


And then we ate.

And that's about it.  Toodles.

Japanese Tapes

So during my down time at work I throw in my earphones and listen to some Japanese language mp3s.  As I was listening to a random lesson, the principal walks into the teachers room and is like "ooh American music?  Let me listen." (note, my principal can't speak any English, this was translated to me by my supervisor.)


The tapes work like this:
1) phrase is said in English
2) pause
3) phrase said in Japanese.


So I explain to him that I'm listening to Japanese language stuff, and he's set on listening.  So I take out my earphones, and as I'm handing them to him, it is loud enough so I hear (in English) "where is the pharmacy?"

Of course, the second he puts in the earphones, he hears (in Japanese) "where is the pharmacy?"

This leads to like 5 minutes him asking my supervisor if I'm sick, then my supervisor getting worried and telling me where the pharmacy is and offers to go with me to the pharmacy to help me pick out some medicine.  The whole time I'm just like "No no no, it was just a coincidence, I am learning how to speak Japanese, I don't need to go to the pharmacy, the tapes are just teaching me."

<3 Japanese people.

I missed you

One of the office assistants (Daimaru-san or 大丸）was gone yesterday, and so when I tried to say "I missed you yesterday" I of course used the wrong "miss" so she tilted her head and was like "what?" Turns out, I said "I failed to hit you yesterday."  And I said it in a sad tone, so she probably thought that I really wanted to hit her.

Humble-off: Round 2!

I hesitate in calling this "round 2" since the participants are different, but it was the second humble-off that I have witnessed so the title will stay.

First, to set the stage.  It was my supervisor’s (Nishidate-sensei or 西舘先生） last day on Friday and my new supervisor (Yamaguchi-sensei or 山口先生）was getting her little tour of the teachers room.  Apparently, 山口 used to work here at Noheji High School, but she took 3 years maternity leave and is just now returning.  As a result, she knows a few of the teachers here.

So 西舘 of course offered her some tea and was showing her where her teachers desk is and what not, when suddenly, an office assistant （Daimaru-san or 大丸さん）entered the room.  山口 and 大丸 obviously knew each other and they started talking.

I didn't really understand everything they were saying to each other, but there was lots of bowing and repeating "so wonderful to see you again."  Of course, 西舘 was standing right next to 山口 and 大丸 bowing repeatedly at each other and must have felt a little left out because she started bowing  along with them.  Since this was happening right next to my desk, I decided I might as well join in so I started bowing and a great time was had by all.

So anyway, a few minutes later, 山口 finishes her tea and the humble-off begins.  山口 is clearly a veteran of the office and knows how to clean the dirty dishes and put them back, but of course, she was the guest, so 西舘 felt obligated to do the cleaning.  西舘 noticed the empty cup and grabbed it and was on her way to the sink to wash it, but 山口 wouldn't go down without a fight.  She stole the cup right from 西舘's hand and started doing a little Japanese walk/run/jog mix thing to the sink, of course 西舘 was chasing her the whole way screaming something like "no no no, I will clean that! Give that back!" and 山口 was just all like "no no no I got it."

So they get to the sink and a really awkward two person washing takes place and they both seem content to have drawn the humble-off.