Week 3

April 12, Day 14:
I woke up at 5:30 this morning and began a new ritual: warm lemon water! It feels kinda good to be the first one in the office. Why is that? After finishing some last minute prep and a team meeting, the students arrived for their second day. There was lots of giggling as we greeted each other and I was surprised at how well they remembered all their morning tasks (changing into their inside shoes, hanging up their bags, hats, and water bottles, putting a sticker on their calendars, etc.)! In America, physical touch towards students is frowned upon for the most part, but at MeySen, teachers are allowed (and encouraged) to give hugs, high-fives, and hold hands. I found myself making this face “🥺” when a little girl took my hand to show me over to her origami frog. How sweet! Even though it was just a half-day today, the kindergarteners were practically falling asleep in their chairs at the end of our time together. I forgot that with tiredness, comes tears. During an English activity, I looked out to see silent tears rolling down not one, not two, but three students’ faces… Time for energy-boosting hide-and-seek! We also did an alphabet sorting activity (see photo) and I was impressed to see these four-year olds matching every letter, bother upper and lower case, to its spot on the mat. Applause applause! One girl was singing the ABC song to herself while we worked and I overheard, “… H, I, J, K, M, M, M”… We’ll work on that. After the students went home, I headed downstairs for three hours of new teacher training! Since we got a late start on our arrival in Japan, we have to squeeze in our official curriculum training when we can. I’ll be observing, training, and team-teaching for the remaining days of this week. Whew.

April 13, Day 15: Today felt frustrating. I think I’ve hit the “information overload” chapter of my journey and it makes it hard to keep up. I felt tired today and a bit more irritable than normal. My students didn’t have school, so I spent the day observing other Kindergarten teachers and training for curriculum. I had a rushed lunch and spilled my tea on the way to a meeting. On the bright side, Sakura trees are finally blooming in Sendai which made my walk to the store even more beautiful. When I left the store, the sun was setting and I stopped to look for four leaf-clovers. No luck today.

April 14, Day 16: Another half-day in kindergarten. We focused on rules today, but it’s really hard to explain how to do something to someone who doesn’t speak the same language. LOTS of big body movements, pointing, modeling, nodding, facial expressions, and pictures if possible. Today I sang them a song that goes, “Where is __(name)__, where is __(name)__?” and someone is supposed to sing “Here I am, here I am” (all to the tune of Frere Jacques). Since I assumed they still don’t understand how it works, I was prepared to sing the whole thing myself. But to my surprise, a small little voice replied, “Here I am, here I am” and I looked over to see a boy standing and waving his tiny little hands as he sang… 🥺 How brave! It was a drizzly day and most kids came to school wearing colorful rubber boots. I wore strawberry socks and bonded with two girls who had strawberries on their boots. During station rotations, I watched small groups put a puzzle together. Their problem-solving skills blew me away as the pieces came together. They are so gentle, observant, and bright! Today would have been a highly productive day if I didn’t have a food-poisoning episode around 2:15pm.

April 15, Day 17: Last day of observations and training. Nothing super exciting to report today. Even though it’s Friday, I am already looking forward to seeing my kiddos on Monday. It was a very rainy day today/tonight, so I’m spending the evening cozied up in a sweatshirt and watching my new favorite show: “Old Enough”. Udon with egg and tofu, kiwi, cucumber, carrots, and matcha Pocky for dinner. I’m starting to wonder if I’m consuming too much sodium but I can’t read nutrition labels yet, so I’ve decided not to care. Cheers to Friday.

April 16, Day 18: SATURDAY
I spent my day journaling, cleaning, relaxing, and talking on the phone during the hours that Japan and Oregon are awake at the same time. I went to the store to browse and maybe buy a few things, but I came back with an entire bag-full. I bought different kinds of snacks to try, more kiwis (they’re in season), a sweet potato, mochi, a donut for an Easter tradition, bananas, a mysterious flavor of ramen, and a salmon bonito bento box for dinner. Starting to feel more comfortable in the store, but still unfamiliar with 90% of the products. Actually, make that 95%.

April 17, Day 19: Downtown Sendai
Happy Easter! Feeling a little sad to be spending it away from my family, but I’m thankful, once again, for FaceTime! This morning I learned how to use the public transportation, starting with the bus. I headed down to the train station and hopped on the subway to downtown Sendai. Here’s a list of all that I saw (with the help of my amazing tour guide, Nancy)
– Learned how to use the Shinkansen (for future reference)
– Saw the many wonders of Sendai Station. It’s full of restaurants, pop-up markets, sweets and dessert stores, and a giant stained glass window.
– Went into many stationery stores (bought some letters and envelopes)
– Found another MUJI ! Almost bought an olive green felt tip pen but the line was too long.
– Was overwhelmed in a technology store
– Ate a pineapple burger from a Hawaiian restaurant for lunch
– Played fur elise on a roll-up keyboard
– Walked down _______
– Walked through _____ park
– Made it home
What a day!

April 18, Day 20:
Monday. Half-day with kiddos. First day of parent-teacher conferences. Luckily there was a translator in the room. The parents were so kind and I was able to get to know my students a little bit better through them. Soup dumplings and udon for dinner. It’s been 20 days????????? If I’m being honest, homesickness has started to creep in, but I still feel like I’m just on a super-awesome-very-long-personal vacation.