Express Train to Wakayama City!
Trip Start
Jun 27, 2009
1
7
47
Trip End
Jun 25, 2011
Wakayama City,
Japan
Saturday, September 2, 2006
We met up with the other Group B JET's and took taxi's to the immigration office
01 tony smushed in the back of lily's "k-car"
. We filled out the necessary paper work to get our multiple re-entry permits for leaving the country. Paid 600 YEN and they put a sticker in our passports saying we could leave and return multiple times within our 3 year visa. Our orientation was at a big office building and we sat in a college style classroom and listened to the Prefectural Advisors (JET's who have been here for 2+ years already) talk about basic stuff, they answered questions, and talked about prefectural events for the year: camping trip, kayaking, etc...Then we all went out to dinner and did karaoke! It was a great night, good to see the other JET's as usual! We checked into a hotel, it was so nice sleeping on a nice bed with nice pillows! In the morning we got up, I got food at the grocery store and met the other guys at KFC for lunch - haha the french fries were delicious. Then we took the bus to Wakayama Castle, grabbed walking sticks and headed up in the hot sun. We made it up to the top of the castle and were surprised at the beautiful view! Most people say Wakayama City has nothing to offer and don't stop there, but rather use the city as a hub to get to Osaka. We were all glad we saw the castle and enjoyed sitting up at the top, looking around the city and farther on to the mountains. Lily and I looked around a big dept.store that had a huge grocery store inside (I found REFRIED BEANS AND TACO SHELLS!
02 HUGE spider in our stairwell, IT JUMPED too!!
! made my weekend!) before boarding the express train back down south. Exhausted from our 2 nights away, I called it an early night, and slept late Sunday morning. Lily and I headed for the beach Sunday morning and then hung around the appts late afternoon. Today was my first day of teaching! Finally after a month at the Board of Education doing nothing really...(should've been learning Japanese but I didn't) I boarded the train to Shimosato (3 stops away - about 10 minutes) Station. I rode the train with about 50 Junior High students, all dressed in their navy blue pants or skirt, and white collared shirt. 46 of these students probably spent the whole train ride e-mailing or playing games on their cell phones...We all got off the train at Shimosato Station and I was greeted by 15 fifth grade students holding homemade signs and Japanese fans. The signs said in bright colors "Welcome to Shimosato Katherine!"
I belted out in my friendliest, "OHAYO GOZAIMASU!" and said hello to the students and their teacher Watanabe-sensei. He told me that these were some of his students and that they were all going to show me a short-cut to the school. (Shima drove me to this school about 2 weeks ago and said it was a 15 minute walk from the train station...had these students not met me at the station I would've had NO idea where to go) It felt like we were in the Venice of Japan, winding through these small alley ways behind houses, through makeshift gravel parking lots, past grandmothers tending their gardens, and over a large bridge that parallels the Pacific
03 watching FULL HOUSE! dubbed in japanese
. By now we had accumulated about 50 or so students, all headed towards the Elementary School in their matching uniforms. The teacher told me that all 1st graders must wear a red govt issued hat whenever they are outside. All 4th graders must wear this same hat but in white. ALL boys must carry the same BLACK leather backpack. ALL girls must carry the same backpack but in red. All the students seem really happy and are chatting away, saying "Ohayo Gozaimasu" to passerbys in the street. We arrive to the school, I change into my indoor shoes, put my outdoor shoes in the shoe locker-thingy and the next thing I see is 2 round sandboxes full of....BABY SEA TURTLES swimming in water!!! It was amazing, I've never seen a sea turtle that small before, and to see about 80 of them swimming around, only as big as the palm of your hand was awesome. There was a smaller tub full of sand and about 25 eggs that had yet to hatch. Don't worry they aren't keeping them to eat, the students went out to the beach outside the school and dug up the turtle eggs to save them from big birds that would eat them. THey will keep them at the school for a few weeks until they are big enough to release them back into the ocean. I couldn't get over how awesome this was and stayed outside in the hallway for a few minutes...
I walked into the teachers room and said good morning to the teachers, was shown my desk and started to look through the things I had brought for my first lesson
04 video of the full house dubbed voices
. After about 5 minutes five girls waltzed right into the Teacher Room and started hanging all over their teacher Watanabe-sensei. In Japan students can enter the Teacher Room whenever they want, unlike the States when it is totally off limits. THey were very curious about me and wanted to see what I was doing....then they all started to say, "Sharapova! Sharapova!" Their teacher said that they thought I looked like Sharapova! It was the nicest thing a kid has ever said to me...but then I thought about it and I think they said I look like her because I am probably the only tall, blonde, girl they have ever seen in person. Oh well...it was a nice way to start the morning!The next thing I knew I was being ushered into the gym to give my first introduction in ALL JAPANESE! The principal introduced me briefly to the students, all sitting in perfectly straight lines according to grade level. He motioned me to come forward and I began my speech. I did pretty well I think! Some words were hard, like this particular sentence...see if you can say it! "Hazukashigaranaide kudasine! Minasan to aete ureshii desu, soshite undoujyo de minasanto issho ni asobitaidesu." That all means, "Don't be shy! I love to meet new people and look forward to playing games with you on the playground." After I finished everyone applauded and the principal approached me with a big thumbs up and said "great job!" PHEW - intro speech #1/7 DONE
05 COSTCO SHIPMENT CAME TODAY!!!
!I walked to my first class at 9:35, 4th grade. I walked into the classroom and set my things down, hung up a map of the US and a world map on the blackboard. Then I slowly in English introduced myself. I showed my "All About Me" book that I made and tried to say things in as basic English as I could. Everyone laughs when I say my brothers name is Thomas because Thomas the Tank Engine is veryyyy popular here, so they think its very silly that my brothers name is the same as a train. The kids couldn't get over the picture of my house and all the snow, they thought Jansen was "kawaii" (very cute), and they thought the picture of me when I was five was hilarious. I turned to the page entitled "I LIKE...." and the exclaimed "Potatoe!" and I said, "I say, French Fries" and they thought peanut butter and jelly was gross. They couldn't believe the picture of D.C. traffic on the "I DONT LIKE..." page either. They liked seeing the picture of me playing lacrosse too and kept saying the word TENNIS while talking about it. I hope I was able to covey that they are very different!
After showing my book I showed pictures of the 3 things you need to remember when meeting someone in America: firm handshake, eye contact, and a big smile. I demonstrated with a very VERY scared student, and worked my way around class introducing myself "Hi, my name is Katherine," and they would answer "Hi, my name is Yuki." We did that for a while then I passed around American money which was a HUGE hit in all 3 classes
06 pillow comparison
. One boy thought he was really sneaky and put the 5 dollar bill and some coins in his pencil box. Then a little girl came up to me and pointed to him as if to tell me he hadn't handed his money back in yet. haha oh little boy, I'm onto you - I knew you had the money all along!I repeated this lesson for 3 classes in a row, 6th grade and 5th grade followed. Then it was time for lunch! I ate with the 5th graders per their request, and entered the classroom to see a mass assembly line, with the lunch helpers dressed in white aprons, chefs hats, and white masks over their faces (the kind surgeons wear, or the kind we see Asian people wearing on the news to protect themselves from the bird flu or whatever) schloppipng out massive amounts of, you guessed it - WHITE RICE, topped with vegetable curry. They also got a side of fresh fruit and a carton of milk. Meanwhile the teacher isn't present in the classroom, things are very loud and chaotic but everyone has a job and is pretty much doing what they need to be doing. Sensei comes back in and everyone says "Itadakimasu" which means "Let's eat!" and they chow down.
After lunch they all go into the hallway with their toothbrush and brush their teeth before going outside. There are no teachers outside to watch the 120 odd kids at recess, but there aren't usually any problems I was told
07 a street in the shopping district of town
. If someone gets hurt or there is a fight that can't be worked out someone will come get a sensei from the teachers room. Obviously I can't get over this - at Browne we had to be strategically spaced out around the playground with our eyes always kept on certain more dangerous playground equipment and particularly feisty students. Most of the 5th graders stayed inside because it was too hot, but the rest are outside (with hats on!) playing either dodge ball, baseball or playing on the swings. At 1:00 music plays throughout the school signifying time to come back in and clean the school! Students all get rags, brooms and mops and begin a mass cleaning of their classrooms, hallways, stairwells and bathrooms. Quite a sight! No need for janitors...although I think they really do need them because the kids, not surprisingly, aren't actually good cleaners. I hung out in the teacher room until 4:30 looking at some future ideas for lessons, chatting in broken English with the few curious teachers and staff, drinking coffee and eating "sweets" that were brought to me. OH! I forgot to mention that in each of the 3 classes, not one student could come up and point to Washington, D.C. on the map! I was shocked...and in the teacher room I had to pull out the map because none of the teachers new where it was either! They get very confused with Washington State, understandably, but still! the nations capitol! They also asked me "why is it named district of COLUMBIA?" to which I said...uhhh....err...good question! I will get back to you on that one. I definitely do not know :)
Tomorrow is a different school, 3 or 4 different classes, but hopefully it will be another exciting day...
