Welcome to another edition of the Deskwarming Diaries, where an ALT is wondering where the last two months have gone. This post includes journaling, and updates for running, Golden Week, and the Olympics. Let’s jump in!
Here are the highlights!
- A few weeks ago, my school held their annual Sports Day, like a Field Day in the US. The theme this year was the Olympics, and while I was not overly enthused about it, that changed once the day came. They had a torch run, they ‘lit’ the Olympic flame; it was adorable! They also added tug-of-war to the list of activities! And best of all, they let me and Jessica participate. We gave it our best, feet dug in, arms straining, but our team lost haha. Still, that was definitely the highlight of my day, if not the week!
- After a year of not having them, Jessica and I have started visiting the kindergartens again! And man oh man did I forget how cute they are. The first things we teach are colors, and we did an activity where we would call out a color and they would try to find it on their clothing. One kid, who was upset they didn’t have whatever color, suddenly yelled, “Oh wait, I have it on my underwear!” and made to pull down their pants in the middle of class. Their minder quickly swooped over and was like, “NOPE. NO UNDERWEAR.”
- In a second color game, we yell a color and the kids run around the room and try to find it. The color was brown, and this little kid… They were running slowly, looking around, when suddenly, they stopped, looked at the color of the floor, stared at it soundlessly, then yelled, “AH! IT’S BROWN!” and looked at us like “Holy crap you guys, look!” It was really cute!
- So…. I may have made a mistake. In elementary, one of the textbooks has a section with common English phrases, things like “I don’t know,” “Come here,” and “Good idea!” One of them, is “Me?” and the gesture is pointing at yourself. To make sure the kids did the rising intonation at the end, I overexaggerated it. “Mmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeee?” Then, I told them that if they actually did it like that in the States, people would think they were crazy. Maybe scary. “And you know what the scariest way you can do it is?” “HOW?! HOW?!” And I turned my back to them and slowly turned around to face them while saying, “Mmmmmeeeeeeee??” They thought it was HILARIOUS. The problem is, now they won’t stop doing it! Everytime Jessica and I go into class now, they’re hiding behind things and creepily poking their heads out while saying ‘me,’ haha.
- In another elementary class, we watched a video about how people in other countries count from 1-10 on their hands. The last one is Spanish. After we watched it, we told the kids how in America, many people know how to count from 1-10 in Spanish and French. Those are common foreign languages in schools in America. One of the boys in the front of class went, “Furansu-go! [French in Japanese] Bonjour! ……..” And, realizing he didn’t know anymore French words, yelled, “Furansu pan! [‘baguette’ in Japanese]” causing everyone to loose it laughing.
- Last elementary story I swear. At the end of class, the touban (student in charge) came to the front of the room to lead the kids in the ‘ceremony’ to end class. “Tachimashou!” [stand up!] he yelled. Then, his teacher said, “Hey, say that in English. It’s cooler.” So this kid, without missing a beat, says, “TaCHImaSHOu!” and does a weird little dance. The whole class burst into laughter, and his teacher was lost for words.
Bullet Journal
Yyyyyep, I’ve started a bullet journal. Or rather, I started it in March, but I’m just now posting about it haha. I’d been looking for a way to doodle more and stretch my creative muscles, and this was provided the perfect outlet! Hunter doesn’t get it; he says it looks like an awful lot of work… It definitely is, but it’s fun to have something to look forward to at the end of every month!
Last month, my theme was bees, and this month it’s hydrangeas. I’m mostly done with my June spread, just the weeklies left. I’m planning on leaving them unfinished, so I can look forward to coloring them in the week before!
Running Update
Guess who finally ran a 5k a few weeks ago??? This girl!!
Olympics Update
I officially pulled out of the Olympics last month. No more volunteering. I still feel bad about it. I was so excited for so long, I was attending the trainings and the orientations, studying my Japanese, but nope, no go. Just can’t justify going to an event most of the country is against, un-vaccinated, for a whole month, then traveling back to my itty bitty town full of vulnerable people.
What we ended up doing during Golden Week
On to happier things. Last month, during Golden Week, Hunter and I ended up going to Niigata to bike on a super awesome bike path! There aren’t many such paths in Japan, and this one follows right along the coast on an old railroad line. The views were spectacular, the weather gorgeous — until we turned around. Almost immediately it started raining, big, heavy drops that sapped my motivation. The wind picked up too, and we were both miserable and tired by the time we made it back. Still think I’d go back though haha.
We also took a day trip to Kamikochi! The original plan was to camp at Tokusawa for a few days, but we were too tuckered out from biking. It was gorgeous! The Alps were still covered in snow, and the weather was crystal clear and chilly.
