"Since Matt-sensei is single, how about...?"

During lunch with the 1st graders at one of the elementaries we were chatting about  the usual fare for a while ("What animal do you like?" "How old are you?"), until finally one asks the inevitable:

"[Do you have a girlfriend?]"

I inform them that no, I in fact, do not, and am immediately paired off with one of the assistant teachers.  Awkward eye contact and apologies from/to the paired parties ensue while the children giggle; despite the homeroom teacher's reassurances that, fact that I was leaving Japan aside, I didn't need the help of the first graders to find a girlfriend, the students kept bringing it up.

"Well if Matt likes curry rice, ~sensei can make it..."

Their innocence really is touching.

"Three!? Three WHAT, huh?"

Went swimming with my elementary school students Friday a week ago.  I showed off my butterfly technique (when I told them it was my specialty, they were all "oh! awesome!"); being 5 years out of practice means I left the pool really sore, but I still got it!

The elementary students were of course keen to study my body moreso than my technique--lots of requests for muscle flexes and such, along with plenty of poking and some hugs, the hug being a new tactic in an attempt to sap my body heat (it was a cool overcast day at the outdoor pool).

At one point on the deck, a 6th grade boy leans over and examines my crotch*.
"Yappari, mit-tsu aru. [I knew it, there's three!]"

Something about curiousity and cats.  He got a good poke attack for that one.

(*I was in a speedo--I've kept it from high school.  It's so small, why not pack it everywhere?)

"This is 'Tuba.'"

I went through band practice one day last week.  The students are spread in different rooms practicing their various instruments (mostly woodwinds, but there was the drum/xylophone room for the percussionists too).

As I walked into the percussion room, one of my favorite girls, Yui, comes up to me (she's sort of in charge of practice), offering an emphatic "Hi!" (which is why she's one of my favorites).

She then proceeds to lead me through the rooms, stopping to introduce me to all of the instruments in English, without any prompting from me whatsoever.

At one point I tell her I played sax back in high school.
"!! Me too!" she excitedly replies. She even let me HOLD hers.  Got me nostalgic for my high school jazz band days.  More than anything, though, it made me really happy--it was very much a "she can SO use English!" moment, and I'm not sure which of us was prouder for it.

Japanese Snot Eaters

Checking out baseball practice on my way home one day, one of my normally quiet 7th graders starts talking to me a bit--being a 7th grade boy, of course, he has some typical boy questions.  For instance:

Him: "What's this?" while pointing at his nose.
Me: "Nose?"
Him, in Japanese now, "no, [Japanese word I haven't learned]."
gestures at something reminiscent of picking your nose.
Me: "..Snot?"

"Su-not!" he giggles.  

He points at his friend.  "You are 'snot!'"  His friend gives him a quizzical look, while Yuu* (the first boy) repeats the accusation, cracking up.

He turns back to me.  "What's [a bloody nose**?]"
My translation is too long for his liking, so he immediately moves on.
At this point a 9th grader, Daijiro, has come over to supervise.
"What's [poop?]"
Me (faux innocent): "I don't know."
Yuu squats, and gestures from his butt.
At this point Daijiro interjects telling him to stop it.  ("You are a bad man," Daijiro scolds, but being a lowly 7th grader Yuu needs a translation to get the insult.)

I of course refuse to tell him anything more at this point, seeing what he's already done with the little I've given.  Yuu tries to get a couple more perverse but typically boyish words translated, along with hilarious gesticulation--I've never had as much fun playing dumb as when he was gesturing at [from] his crotch looking for confirmation of what it's called while some two dozen of his classmates looked on cracking up. Eventually he gives up and goes back to his old ways.

Yuu: "This boy likes snot. He eats snot!"  "You are su-NOT!"

I'm glad I'm still making friends even with the end so close.

(*He spelled his name as "You," using the well-learned English pronoun in his farewell note.  Adorable. 

**For the record, a bloody nose is a sign of perversion in popular media here--blood's all rushing around so much that the nose gives out).

"Did you enjoy?"

Last week I stopped in on some students working on their art after school. These students are some of my chattiest (nothing all that substantial usually mind you--just "hi! how are you!" but still better than most students will give unprompted).

At one point they're going back and forth about who likes who--two of the girls tell me that  "She," pointing at a third girl, "likes her neighbor!"  but she retorts with a "SHE likes my big brother!" and proceeds to allude to some rendezvous had (something about spending a night together, very scandalous--I'm assuming it was on a field trip or such), the other denying it the whole time. I asked her if she enjoyed it, and they all cracked up.

High School Reunion

About a month ago walking back from school I bumped into some students coming from the high school--no longer my students, they'd graduated in March, but I didn't see them at first and they remembered me, calling me over by name.

We exchanged some brief pleasantries--I asked them about how high school was ("...enjoying...enjoy...fun! It's fun!!" one of them exclaimed.  She always was one of the best students--most never realize there's a translation beyond "enjoy"), and we went on our way, but the...joy at the chance encounter buoyed my spirits for a whole week.

Karoke Champions

In late April we held "Tottori Idol," a karaoke competition for the JETs in the prefecture. Most people missed the "karaoke" memo though and either sang their own music with live accompaniment or otherwise didn't need the machine. My favorite performance was a single group that did Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"...on Rock Band. (For those that don't know, Rock Band is Guitar Hero plus--a video game where you have two guitar controllers, a drum set controller, and a mic, and everyone hits buttons in time with the song to "perform").

I got recruited to join a boy band--sorry to disappoint, but there was no Backstreet Boys "I Want it That Way" this time. Instead we did "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe, the '90s hip-hop one-hit wonder.

We had choreo.

We won.

Preparing for Succession

I finally got my successor's information week before last. Been e-mailing him information and selling him my car, etc...it's really starting to hit home just how soon I'll be leaving. With less than a month to go, I've started packing up my extra (winter) clothes to send home, and just generally have shifted to more of a "the end is nigh" mindset. I met people this weekend, for instance, who could've been good friends in other circumstances, but in this case we simply part with a "farewell."

I'm particularly dreading saying goodbye to my students--with only a few weeks of class left I've only a couple classes at most with each grade left. This Friday will be my last time teaching at the elementaries, and the following week they'll have a "farewell" ceremony for me, which is probably going to make me cry. For whatever challenges I've had with adjusting to living and working here, one thing remains undeniable; I love these children. Seeing my middle school students now, I remark to myself on how they've grown and matured over the past year, about how the non-working troublemaker has at least tried to pay attention on occasion, or how my 9th graders from last year have moved on to high school--I ran into a few not long ago and had a great old-friends moment with them. This is why I love this job, and why leaving will be bittersweet.

Happy Rafting in Shikoku

 Roaring waves and rafters alike!

Met up with the aforementioned Tokushima-prefecture JETs for a day of whitewater rafting last weekend; this time instead of making the trip to Akashi, which is a decenly long but still doable drive, I took the express trains to cover the 200+ km.

The weather and scenery were absolutely GORGEous; it was cloudy but not rainy, hot but not uncomfortably so. A perfect day to be out on the water (and in the water--the rapids themselves were fine but our guide had us doing all sorts of balancing acts or otherwise that left us capsized or man overboard-ed). Highlights included stopping for lunch at a bluff overlooking much of the gorge the water ran through and a point nearby where we could "surf" a raft in a rapid where the current came back towards the waterfall. We took turns going in small groups with a guide to keep us afloat, but that didn't do much to avoid the inevitable tossed person/people or capsized raft.

We followed the day of rafting with a night of camping right on the water, building a campfire and enjoying the summer night, and saw some nearby sights the following day. A beautiful weekend and a wonderful getaway.

You can find pictures on facebook here and here.

Beach Ultimate in Akashi

A few weekends ago (June 13-14) I road tripped with a fellow Tottori JET to Akashi--about a 4 hour drive--to play some beach ultimate. The group was pretty similar to the people I played with in Awaji in April; lots of JETs from other prefectures, including Tokushima on the smaller island of Shikoku and Fukuoka, which is pretty far west on the island of Kyushu (in contrast, Tottori is on the northern coast of the southern part of Honshu, Japan's main island).

Saturday's play saw us all mixed up on different teams in a Hat Tournament (where you decide teams by drawing names out of a hat--in this case, we drew our team assignments out of a hat when we registered); most of the teams in Japan are colleges, so I got to chat and play with a handful of guys and gals around my age. I helped carry my team to a 5th-place finish out of some dozen teams. We spent Saturday night in a ryokan, a Japanese-style inn where you sleep on tatami floors with futon mattresses; all 10 of us shared a room together, which made it pretty fun, very nostalgic of sharing cabins at summer camp--thankfully there weren't any big snorers.

Rising Tide!

Sunday we played together on our own team, complete with spray-painted jerseys one of the guys had made. We played hard and well, and wound up finishing 8th out of some 26 teams or so; with a better format or seeding, we could've easily been in the finals though, since we only lost to the eventual champions. Altogether it was a great weekend that left me really excited to play more ultimate! I've only got one more tourney here (and can only make part of it), but I'm looking forward to playing some more once I'm back in the US.