Photo Friday: Aloe Juice

Got this at the train station in Misumi.  It's a refreshing aloe and white grape beverage.

I remember when I was very young, my grandparents had an aloe plant that they would cut open and use on minor cuts and scrapes, calling it "cowboy medicine".  It never occurred to me that it would make for a delicious drink, though.  To be honest, I remember this tasting pretty good apart from one thing...

It's chunky!  That label basically tells you that the drink contains a mess of tiny aloe cubes.  Wish I would have taken notice of that before I took a drink. They don't mix in very well either, meaning those last few sips are going to have a texture closer to a thick soup than a drink.

Elementary Sports Day

Last Sunday was sports day for all four of my elementary schools, and indeed for most elementary schools in Amakusa.  While I was not invited to join any of them in official capacity, I was asked by several to come as a guest.  I was also approached by a representative of my village to participate in one of the events at Urawa.  I chose to do the relay race, which, it turned out, was the last event of the day, thus eliminating the possibility of my visiting any other schools.  I think it worked out better I the long run, though, to see one sports day in its entirety than several in short bursts.

Sports day is exactly what it sounds like.  It’s a day when all the students come in, usually on a weekend, and compete against each other in front of their families and friends.  Sports day can be very serious and the weeks leading up to one are usually filled with a lot of practice.  Not only practice for practical things like how to march and move during the opening ceremony, but also practicing each event and even practicing the awards ceremony with both results.

I was able to see quite a bit of the practice and have to say I was most excited about what has quickly become my favorite event, the oendan competition.  More specifically, I was looking forward to red team’s oendan, as Ren’s younger sister Rena would be leading it.  I know I shouldn’t have any bias when it comes to my kids, but it’s hard not to root for the ones that actively try talking to me and get their friends to talk to me as well, regardless of how cheeky they tend to be.

I arrived at the school at 8:15, my usual start time for any work day.  After the opening ceremonies, during which there is a speech by the principal and a representative from the PTA, as well as warm up exercises and the raising of the national flag, my kids were off.  The first few events were straightforward races starting with the youngest students.  Between these races, children from a nearby nursery school performed dances and had short races of their own.  Many of the community and nursery school events are designed to give the students a break, as it is still pretty hot out and all the exercise can get quite exhausting.  Once all the races were done, it was on to the more interesting events, at least from my perspective.

The next event was a game in which the students from each team, white and red, tried to throw beanbags into a basket held about ten feet in the air.  It’s pretty crazy to watch and there doesn’t seem to be much strategy beyond chunking the beanbags toward the basket.  I saw a lot of midair collisions that probably derailed potential successes, but the sheer number of kids participating made the points totals quite high and the winner of each game usually only had one or two more than the loser.  They played best of three and I believe red ended up winning by a hair in the third match.

Next up was a community event, the centipede race.  In it, groups of four stood in a line and tied their legs to two ropes at their sides.  In order to move, all four needed to be in synch.  Any group that had a member who was a bit too slow or too fast ended up falling over and had to try and reset their rhythm.  A guy I know from the Ariake branch office was in one of the first groups and did pretty well.  It was at this point that I also noticed that Shimotsuura had its own oendan, complete with a giant prop fan, a drum, a flag, and several pom-poms.  It was quite amusing to watch them cheer for our team.  Shimotsuura took first place in this event.

The kids did tug-of-war next, which went to the third game and resulted in a win for white team I think.  I do recall that the last game was incredibly close and that the rope barely moved either direction from its starting point.  I sometimes worry about how evenly divided the teams are, as I have no idea how the teams are decided on, but this seemed to be a case of well-matched opponents.

After a few more races, the initial scores were posted.  Around midday, it stood at 231-231.  There were a few more community events, including a golf challenge for the older spectators, a family race, and a junior high race.  I suppose I’ve neglected to mention it up to this point, but all of my junior high kids who went to Urawa were at the event as well, regardless of if they had a sibling at the school or not.  The family race was quite amusing, as my elementary students raced against their mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers.  Naturally, I think the parents were holding back, but I’m not sure about some of the siblings.  I regret not getting video of this event as I really enjoy making connections between my students and their families.  I did record the junior high race, though I’m still not sure how the various teams were decided for it.

There were some wacky races following the junior high that consisted of crawling under a net, running across a balance beam, riding tiny tricycles, and passing a ball shaped like a watermelon between three members of your team.  I really like how creative these things can be, but I sometimes feel like the various challenges are not equal and the winner is often decided by which team gets the easiest one toward the end of the race.

Everyone danced the Ariake dance before lunch.  I was fortunate enough to have practiced the dance twice, at both Urawa and Dainan, and feel I did quite well.  I suppose I was concentrating a bit too hard on getting it exactly right though, because one of the parents told me I needed to smile.  After all, the dance is supposed to be fun.  It is in no way a competition.  I was able to ease up a bit and really had a great time dancing.  I’m just sad we only did it once, getting two or three times in during the practice sessions.

As my house is only about a ten-minute walk from the school, I went home during the lunch break and made myself a pizza.  I arrived a little late and much to my dismay had missed the opening of the red team’s oendan, but only the first 40 seconds or so.  I recorded the rest and was quite impressed by their routine.  White team was next and while I feel they were a bit louder, I also thought their performance was a bit easier.  It would be a really tough call for me which team did better and I don’t believe it was announced during the closing ceremony like it usually is.

Next was the community tug-of-war.  I went out to record a few of the games and one of my junior high girls, Akari, offered to let me wave the flag for Shimotsuura.  It was really sweet of her to do that and I know she has a hard time talking to me.  Naturally, I accepted her offer and gave my all in waving that flag.  It was a lot of fun to help cheer my team to victory.  Shimotsuura took first place in this event as well.

There was an event where my kids did some light exercising and made a number of really impressive human towers, the largest of which was easily 12-15 feet tall.  I got some great pictures of the brave kids perched at the top, their faces frozen in concentration and fear.  Only one of the towers had any problems.  During the deconstruction of the tallest tower, Rena toppled off the back.  At the time, the tower was already pretty low, though, and one of the teachers was there to catch her.  She walked away without a scratch.

A few relay races, including mine, followed.  I feel I did okay during my race, and it was really encouraging to hear all the kids cheer for me, despite most of them not being from my area.  We ended up in fourth place (out of six) for this race, but were so far ahead at that point that I really didn’t think it would matter.

Lastly, there was the awards ceremony, where white team was declared the winner and a few students were singled out for extraordinary effort.  A flag and trophy were also given to representatives from the winning village, Shimotsuura (Yes!).  It is always difficult for me at the end of sports day because I want all the kids to be happy.  I don’t have a team and it’s quite hard to sit and watch as half the school gets a little choked up from losing.  To their credit, the elementary kids were quite good about it.  They were upset, but it passed quickly enough, like most things do for students that age.  I got one last picture of Rena and her friends (she had painted her face for the oendan and I really wanted a close-up of it) and left, not bothering to help with tear down.  I got home around 3:30, nearly a whole workday spent watching my kids play.  It was a very good day.

What's Your Name?

This year, I've been trying really hard to remember my student's names. I'd estimate at the time of this writing that I teach over 300 students at a normal enough interval that I feel learning their names is a serious priority, so I'm not including some of the 1st-4th graders at the elementary schools that I only teach occasionally in this number. Obviously the first great hurdle for me is the sheer number of students I have. This is exacerbated by the fact that many of my classes are quite erratic in terms of when I visit them. Sadly, in the grand scheme of things, English is seen as something easily dismissed. There are many weeks when I'm not given the opportunity to teach at one school or another and thus miss precious face time with the children.

Another difficulty is the names themselves. Obviously, Japanese and American names share little, if anything, in common (though I have remembered a few like Sarina by thinking of the name Selina). Japanese, being a syllabary language, has a far greater tendency to have names that are very close, or identical in spelling. For instance, I have three Sayakas and two Moes in the same grade. Identical names actually make things easy, it's the names that are close but not quite identical that really give me problems. I have Miku and Mika, Natsumi and Natsuki, Mai and Mei, and Ruri and Riru. And don't even get me started on the class that has Kana and Kanna. This doesn't really pose a problem to native speakers, because they're familiar with the subtle differences between sounds in the language and can differentiate identical sounding names based on the kanji that they're composed of, which is often completely different.

An astute reader may have noticed by now that all the names mentioned up to this point have been girls' names. While this may be indicative of my tendency to be more comfortable around girls, probably a result of being raised by my three older sisters and my mom, there seems to be some truth to the notion that boys' names are just plain harder, as Amanda would no doubt attest. Male names tend to be longer, usually comprised of three kanji as opposed to two for most girls names. They also seem to be more varied. Many girls names have the kanji 美 (mi) and 子 (ko) meaning beautiful and child respectively. Many times names are reflections of traits the parents hope the child has, and who doesn't want a beautiful child? Also the kanji 沙 (sa) is really popular in my area. I have no idea what it means because it's not part of the Joyo kanji list, the 1945 kanji taught in schools that I am trying to learn. Anyway, my point is boys tend to have a wider variety of kanji. I suppose ultimately the traits sought by parents are more varied in males, given that Japan still is predominately a male dominated culture and thus more is likely expected from them. And don't misunderstand, I do know a few of my boys names, but they tend to be the shorter ones like Daiki, Yuki, Kaito, and Akio. When last I tried to comprise a list of junior high students' names off the top of my head, however, I came up with 66 girls and 3 boys.

I am making considerable progress though. When I first wrote this entry in my journal, I could name about forty students. The list I made a few weeks ago consisted of 69 junior high students and about 100 students overall. Now, I imagine those numbers are hovering around 85 and 130. As I mentioned in a previous post, the downside to all of this is the knowledge that some, if not all, of the connections I'm making by learning about my students will be ending next year. I intend on giving my students my email as a graduating/parting gift from me and I hope they'll keep in touch, but I also realize many of them won't. Reflecting on this has also made me realize howlittle I've tried to keep in touch with those teachers who touched my life, and inspired me to try and rectify that.