September wrap-up

Apologies for not posting regularly, but more than that, the lack of pictures. It takes too long to put them up, so for a visual update on what’s going on, see my facebook albums (or ask me for a link to photos).

It’s been incredibly busy the past few weeks and today is my first day back at the office since the semester began. I have now been to 7 of my 9 schools at least once, and have met several hundred kids and dozens of teachers and staff. I am generally picked up in the morning at the BOE or somewhere near my apartment by the principal, vice-principal or some other senior staff member and driven to school at times ranging from 7:40am to 11:00am (although on the days when I start later, I have to be in the office at 8:30, getting prepared or making materials for future classes).

They’ve so far all been interested in who I am, where I come from, who I had to kill to become a teacher at age 21, and how on earth it’s possible for me to stomach Japanese food. This food phenomenon often evolves into a 20 minute quiz from when I step into the car to when I enter the staff room on all the foods they can think of, with me responding, ‘’yes, I can eat that, too…’’, which is met with further gasps of surprise. I can only assume they’ve met foreigners with palates so limited that stomaching anything beyond cheeseburgers and fries would be simply impossible. Thankfully, though, I believe the staff at my schools are simply looking out for my best interests, or they would probably not proceed to ask me the same questions again come lunchtime, which is inevitably the case:

Teacher: Mike-sensei, can you eat Japanese food?
Me: Why yes, I can.
Teacher: Really??? Sugoi (amazing)! Even rice?
Me: Yep, hasn’t done me in so far.
Teacher: Sugoi! How about miso soup?
Me: Yes, even miso soup…
Teacher: Sugoi! How about *every other dish on the tray*?
Me: …

I guess that’s just part of the fun of cultural exchange. By and large we have a good time, and the teachers are friendly and receptive, quick to offer their help or extend a cup of tea when they’re not running around.


Last night my fellow foreigner friends (say that ten times fast) and I took a bus to Yamanaka, part of the greater Kaga area that is relatively close by, hoping to have a great time at a festival that was taking place there. Unfortunately, there was a massive rainstorm, which meant that the festival, which was all outdoors, was going to………....continue as planned. So after going to a traditional Yukata-wearing ceremony and dance practice (for the ladies), we ended up going outside in the misery and walking around disappointingly underpopulated vendor stalls, eventually getting some food and a beer, but eventually wrapping it up early.

Between myself and my three other English teacher friends, we cover pretty much every school in Kaga, elementary, junior high, and high school, so amusingly enough, we saw our students everywhere that night. It was pretty cool, actually. You’d see some young kids glance in your direction, go wide-eyed, and then exclaim to their friends ‘’Look, it’s Mike-sensei!!’’ And the same happened to the others, pretty much the entire time we were there, students recognizing us as we strolled up and down the booths.

After that, we went to Yamanaka Onsen, which is a famous ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel) and onsen (public bath created by hot springs for people to relax in). We were in an outdoor one, with no one else around, so with the rain and the cool night air it was perfect.