Welcome to another edition of the Deskwarming Diaries, where an ALT re-learns that winter (and cold weather) doesn’t last forever. This post features cherry blossoms, future plans, exercise, and Olympics worries. Let’s jump in!
First, as always…
The Highlights
- New school year, new name tags for the kids. This time, we let some of the kids choose their own name instead of using their real one. Enter Mozarella Cheese, White Choco, President, Santa Claus, Potato, Yaki Onigiri, and Tuna Mayo, among others. They get such a kick out of hearing us call on them by their chosen names, and it makes class a lot more interesting!
- The other day, in a middle school class, I was helping some kids study before their test the next day. They had all kinds of nitpicky questions that I did my best to answer. After about thirty minutes of this, the boy I was helping turned to me and said, “Your Japanese has gotten really good, sensei.” I wanted to cry. “Really??!! I’ve been thinking it was getting worse.” “Noooo, no no no.” The girl next to him said. I just started at them for a bit before telling them that it made me really happy to hear that <3. Five minutes later, they were complaining about how hard English was. “Japanese is hard!” I said, and we decided that we should just do our best in our respective studies haha.
- With the little ones, Jessica and I taught them the 命令 game (Simon Says). Oh my gosh it was great! These are kids that barely know any English, but MAN they pick up quick. Their reactions were fantastic when they made mistakes too! Nothing like a little moving around to get kids paying attention!
- Last but not least, I’m eating lunch with an elementary class. A few weeks ago, there were more leftovers than usual — no one wanted seconds. The teacher was begging kids to eat just a little bit more, when suddenly, the kid in front of me stood up, turned around, and said, “Jayelon sensei, please…. please take some.” Next thing I know I’ve got an entire room of kids staring and waiting for me to grab more food. I ended up caving soon after haha.
Mandatory Spring Sakura Pictures
Ahhhh, sakura season. It’s the one time of year when I wish I lived further south. For weeks, friends who live south of me in Nagano post pictures of their beautiful cherry blossoms every day, at their popular locations, and I look outside and see nothing but brown. Up in the far north of Nagano, we don’t get blooms until mid to late April. Case in point, some trees just started blooming here at the end of last week, but we still have lots that are only budding! Hopefully this weekend there’ll be more, but I was able to get out of the house one day earlier in the month for a little excursion south. Not too far, since Nagano is currently in its 4th wave of infections, but far enough.
Oh, they were gorgeous. We got the last parking space in a small parking lot, people were keeping their distance from others, and no one was picnicking under the trees so it was easy to walk around and enjoy the blossoms. I also pulled out my camera for the first time in months! I always forget how much I enjoy photography in winter — guess that means I have to get better at taking pictures in the cold haha.
Golden Week is Cominggggg
In Japan, there are three times a year when everyone travels: New Years, Obon, and Golden Week. Golden Week takes places at end of April/beginning of May every year, and consists of four public holidays, three of which are consecutive.
- April 29th: Showa Day
- May 3rd: Constitution Memorial Day
- May 4th: Greenery Day
- May 5th: Children’s Day
This year, Hunter and I are planning on going camping in Kamikochi, a gorgeous area with lots of hiking and nature. Kamikochi is deep in the mountains so it’ll still be quite cold there, but we’re taking that into consideration when we pack. The only thing I’m worried about now is rain. But that’s ‘easy’ to avoid, just look at the weather forecast… right? Hopefully the trip will go smoothly and we’ll be able to walk around in the woods with little human interaction. Fingers crossed haha.
So I’ve been running…
Anyone who knows me knows that I HATE running. With a passion. Anyone who knows Hunter knows that he enjoys running. With a passion. So… I’ve started running haha. I’ve been following Couch to 5k for a while and can now run for 20 minutes straight! I honestly thought I was going to die the whole time, but I did it! Hunter and I set my 5k goal for May; I feel like I’m so close and yet so far. I’m gonna do my best!
Goodbye Olympics?
In other news, I was supposed to be volunteering for the Tokyo Olympics last year. Then ‘rona happened, and it got postponed to this year. As of the time of this post, I am still volunteering. But the more I think about it, the more I feel like I’m going to have to withdraw.
Compared to other countries, Japan is doing dismally with their vaccine rollout. They only just started vaccines for the elderly this month, and there is no chance that I’ll be vaccinated by July. That means that I’ll be going to Tokyo, in July, for ten days, unvaccinated, to meet with people all over the world, then travel back to my itty bitty town. I’m not sure I’m ok with that. As much as I want to participate, I don’t want to be that foreigner who brought covid into an unsuspecting town full of old people. I’ll put off withdrawing for a little bit longer, but baring anything amazing happening with the vaccine rollout, it looks like I won’t be going to the Olympics.
