Well, I have officially had my Japanese television debut! While on English camp, we had a camera crew filming some of the activities during day one. Thank goodness I was looking my best ;) haha! I am uncertain if I have permission to upload the video file to this blog, but, in the meantime, you can personal message me on Facebook.
Before travelling to Tamano, a group of us went to a small burger dinner we stumbled upon in our travels. Hot Dining are a very new ‘tapas’ as they describe themselves, opening only in mid-August. They even captured a photo of us eating our wonderful burgers!
English camp was fantastic, but extremely exhausting. Sleeping on a paper-thin mattress and a rock-hard pillow (filled with rice/ beans) doesn’t help your energy levels either! Regardless, my group of students, ALTs and sempai JET were great to work with. Our group was named the ‘Dangerous Dancing Donuts’ – such a fantastically frightening name! Being able to watch how the sempai JETs approached each English activity and communicated with the Japanese students was a huge learning aspect. I feel I’ve gained even more teaching techniques through this experience.
I also experienced my first communal bath. For those who are clueless on this term, a communal bath is traditional Japanese bathing (or showering) time. Most communal baths will have two rooms – a change room and a shower/ bathing room. You first must undress (completely) in the change room before heading into the shower/ bathing room. The outer edges usually have several showerheads, stools and mirrors. Here is where you must clean yourself of the dirt and soap suds, before entering the bath in the centre. Here you can fully relax and unwind from the day. Oh and did I mention there are no shower screens? It was an experience to say the least!
The second day of camp saw the presentation of each group’s English skits. The previous day we had blindly selected a scenario and prop that our skit was to be centred around.
Scenario: Harry Potter appears at your birthday party. He is lost.
Prop: The king’s crown
Our group performed perfectly. They memorised each of their lines and even included actions! It was no wonder our team was awarded the ‘Best Script’ award!
It was sad to see the students leave at the conclusion of the second day. And I am now increasingly envious of those JETs teaching at Junior High Schools! I’m sure I’ll still have some fun and interesting moments with my Senior High School students though!
Today, I was at my visiting school in Yakage. Yakage is a beautiful rural region, around a 35 minute train ride from my main station in Soja. Today, watching the clouds sweep low between the mountainsides was very tranquil. A camera could not capture it, so I apologise to anyone expecting one. I'll try to film it in the near future!
Then, the rain came. No, it wasn’t a light summer sprinkle, it poured! Needless to say, I was pouring puddles of water out of my shoes once I arrived at school. And my pants didn’t dry until nearly lunchtime. The rain was so heavy that a warning had been issued for Soja, Yakage and Kurashiki areas. I was concerned this may even affect my train ride home!!
Obviously I got home on time tonight, or otherwise you would not be reading this! I had to cycle home with squelching shoes though. Not a pleasant feeling! But now I can finally say – T.G.I.F! And here’s to the weekend!!
