Welcome to another edition of the Deskwarming Diaries, where an ALT keeps asking if it’s Friday yet, even though she knows it’s not. This post features boiler woes, kamakura and snails, Valentine’s Day lessons, and an upcoming interview. Let’s jump in!
You know what’s first. Here are the highlights!
- The other day, Jessica and I were on our way to an elementary class, when we realized we couldn’t see any kids in the room. Thinking maybe the teacher forgot we had English that day, we continued forward — before realizing they were there. They were just crouching behind their desks. When we walked in, we were like, “Oh, hello, OO sensei, where are the students?” when they all jumped up and yelled HELLOOOOOOOOO! They were really pleased with themselves haha.
- Also in elementary, I taught the kids ‘swimming meet.’ However, they don’t know ‘meet,’ only ‘meat,’ so they were very confused. One of the boys said ‘swimming meat’ in Japanese which cracked the class up, and I looked right at him and said, “No. That’s scary.” which made him laugh harder.
- In class today, that same boy asked the JTE (my Japanese co-teacher) what 洗濯機 (sentakuki) was in English. She replied, “Washing machine.” This kid…… he starts going “Washing, washing…. washingggggg stone! Washing stone!” We looked at him, soooo confused, and he said 「石鹸」(sekken). I busted out laughing, seeing how he was trying to get that from the kanji characters, then laughed even harder when we told him it was actually ‘soap’ (which has been made into soopu in Japanese).
The death of the 10 year old boiler
Welp, it finally happened. My boiler bit the dust. First, the water in the kitchen went cold. Then it was the bathroom sink. And finally, the shower. While I was showering. It’s been a looooonnnngggg week, but it finally got replaced today! Never thought I’d say this, but I can’t wait to do the dishes — my kitchen is a wreck.
Snow huts and snails
Right now is the Nagano Design Week in Togakushi! So many cool events spread out over three weeks, like snowshoe tours, piano concerts, kamakura, and more. Hunter, Jessica, and her husband have never experienced a kamakura, so we decided to check that out!
Unlike the insanely popular kamakura village in Iiyama, this one was much more intimate — I liked it immediately.
We were shown to our little snow hut, ordered our food, and huddled around the heater until it arrived.
The first thing to be delivered was a rectangle box with three compartments in it. The left had small, fried shrimp (to be eaten whole, legs and all), the middle had two SNAILS, and the right had two strips of rare beef with a sauce drizzled over them. Hunter was the first to try the snails.
He ended up eating both of his, but I couldn’t even eat one! The taste wasn’t too bad, but it was the texture and the fact that I knew I was eating a snail. My throat wouldn’t swallow! We honestly cracked ourselves up over these snails — the reality that the rest of us couldn’t eat them was much funnier than it should’ve been.
Valentine’s Lessons
Back to school for a second, this month Jessica and I have been doing nothing but Valentine’s Day lessons with elementary. And for those lessons, we’ve been making Valentine’s cards with the kids!
At first, we were a little apprehensive about some aspects of the cards — for one, we wanted them to write in English (the little ones haven’t even studied the alphabet yet). Turns out our nervousness was for nothing. These kids ROCKED it!! There were vocally negative students in every class, but most of them wrote ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ and a message in English in the inside (copying what we wrote on the board)! Jessica and I were so excited. There were cards for friends, cards for parents, cards for siblings — honestly every class was just a joy to see these kids using English in a positive way.
Interview
Ja Jaaaaaan! I’ve got an interview on Saturday! No, not a job interview. It’s about my Covid-19 Google doc that I’ve been updating ~4 times a week on cases in Nagano! The interviewer is a man who is a long-time resident of Nagano Prefecture. He has a podcast called ‘Japanofiles,’ where he interviews expats in the area. He recently found the doc and wants to feature me! Woot woot! I’ll let you guys know how it goes in my next post!
Great blog! Loved all the insight.
Thank you!!
Wow, those igloos are the coolest (haha)
They really were! 😀