I Went to Yokoura and All I Got Were Great Memories and New Friends

Sunday I attended the Goshoura Kita Junior High bunkasai (文化祭, culture day) with Amanda.  For as far out in the inaka (田舎, countryside) as I live, Amanda’s islands are even worse.

And by worse, I mean gorgeous.

That’s because they are incredibly isolated (the only means to get to either is to take a ferry) and very, very small.

This car ferry has pictures of dinosaurs on the side.

Goshoura Kita only has about 40 students total, which is only a little bigger than any one of my six junior high classes.  To stretch out their time a little, both the junior high and elementary school participated in the event.  Even so, the whole thing only lasted until noon.

I won’t go into too much detail about the culture festival, as I still have to write up a report on mine and by and large all the bunkasais contain the same sorts of things.  There were a number of plays, the most entertaining of which revolved around friendship and an insane dodge ball game.  The English recitation contestants presented again and three students read speeches they had written.  There was singing and music, from both the elementary and junior high kids.  There was also some artwork, newspapers, and calligraphy displayed along the wall.

The bunkasai was fun, but what I really get excited about is one-on-one interaction with students.  After lunch, Amanda and I roamed the halls looking at pictures of her students, both past and present.  I tried my best to learn a few kid’s names, even though this would probably be the only time I would ever see them, and managed to remember four or five.  We saw that the kids were playing outside and Amanda and I headed out to join them.  A few of the elementary kids were playing basketball, so I grabbed a ball and took a few shots.  I managed to make my first one to the delight of the children and then proceeded to miss all my subsequent attempts.  One of the girls was really impressive and funny, making shots backwards and from a considerable distance.  We only played for about ten minutes before all the elementary kids scurried off to start cleaning the gym.

We helped the junior high kids clean the gym by taking down the art and calligraphy displays.  I once again got the opportunity to impress Amanda’s kids by removing the nails the framed pictures had hung from.  The artwork had been mounted on fairly large wooden displays that we then had to get out of the gym’s rather awkward doors.  I helped one student, Hatsuki, get hers out the door before a teacher came along and told me to switch out.  To Hatsuki’s credit, she was trying her best to use English where she could and did a fairly good job giving directions, though she didn’t know how to tell be to hold the display diagonally.

The best part of the day, however, was after school.  The students only had a half-day, while many teachers had to stay after for the rest of their workday.  Sadly, Amanda was no exception to this rule and thus I would be stuck on Yokoura for another three hours with nothing to do.

My first impulse was to take pictures.

Thankfully, Amanda’s kids were a bit more outgoing outside of school than they had been during the bunkasai, and it wasn’t long before I had a small crowd walking down the road with me, asking me questions and practicing their English.

Pictured: the one road on Yokoura.

Among them were Hatsuki, who it turns out is one of Amanda’s best ninth graders, and two elementary school girls Miyako and Momoko.  They asked me when my birthday was, told me that the weather was sunny (though Momoko insisted it was partly cloudy), and gave me a small rock while saying “here you are”.

Which I totally kept!

They wanted to know about my favorite Japanese food, my age, and my full name.  Hatsuki did a good job helping the younger kids and correcting a few of their mistakes, such as telling them that I was Mr. Eric, not Ms. Eric.  They also told me about themselves, though not always in English.

The group gradually whittled down until I got to the port and sat alone for about half an hour.  I then decided to head back toward the school to see if there were any kids out playing, as Amanda had pointed out a few places they tended to congregate during their free time.  As I passed by the community center, one of the kids called out to me.  It was Miyako.  She asked where I was going, and I tried to explain that I didn’t have anything to do until five.  She was with a few of the other kids, playing soccer in a small field.  I decided to sit and watch for a little while, which turned into an hour and a half of playing with them.  They practiced a bit more English, too, most notably introducing themselves before we started a soccer game so I would know who was on my team.  I also showed them my DS.  Many of the kids had seen me using it that morning before school and wanted to know what game I had.  They were incredibly excited to see it was the English version of Pokemon and tried their hand at playing it for a while.  One of the boys had brought his DSi, and he and Miyako had a lot of fun taking pictures of me and adding a bunch of silly effects.

Amanda showed up around five, having left slightly early from work, and we played with the kids for another ten minutes or so.  They took one last picture of the two of us and put a frame of hearts around it.  It was really sweet and Amanda told me she wished she could get a copy of it.  We caught the ferry back to Kuritake and I told Amanda everything that had happened.  She was surprised Miyako had been so outgoing in talking with me because she is apparently more reserved in class.  I really hope this means she found talking with me easy and fun, as I like to think of myself as an approachable person.  I also hope the kids took something out of the experience, no matter how small.  I certainly did.