Week 7

May 10, Day 42:
too busy tracing sixteen sets of rainbow names to blog…
Oh but we had a Bible Talk today in the main hall and I must mention the goosebumps on my arms when 60+ little kids started singing “Jesus Loves Me” in Japanese.

May 11, Day 43:
They call me by my name now which is cute. By ‘they’ I mean the kindergartners and by ‘my name’ I mean Meria Sensei, Sensei, or Miss Meria. We’re still working on the “L” sound, so my name is a little challenging for them to pronounce. Today a doctor came to the school to do a health checkup and while he was listening to their heartbeats and examining their teeth, I read a story to the other kids in the hallway. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but reading a story to kids in Japan is very different from my experiences of reading stories to kids in America. They actually listen to the story. I felt quite powerful as I looked out at fifteen pairs of eyeballs completely captivated by my words and pictures on a page. Just one of the enchanting moments that makes teaching worth it. I found Thai curry at the store after work today. It’s only Wednesday???

May 12, Day 44:
I have nothing of value to say today. Here’s a portrait from one of my students. Can you guess who it is? It made me smile.

May 13, Day 45:
TGIF! I think people underestimate the amount of energy needed to teach kindergarten. After 5 full days of teaching, playing, singing, lesson planning, cleaning, and craft prepping, I am wiped! It’ll get easier from here though. Or so I’m told… My mom asked me if I’ve been working out lately and I said, “Mom, I play freeze tag with kindergarteners every day and stack/unstack 16 chairs about 3 times a day. That’s my workout”. My students are becoming more and more comfortable which makes me HAPPY! As they warm up, they talk more which means I spend a lot of time nodding and reacting based on the tone of their voices (because they’re still speaking in Japanese, socially) but I really have no clue what they are telling me about. I’m starting to recognize key phrases like “I’m finished”, “It hurts”, “How many more?”, “I’m too hot”, and “I miss my mom” in Japanese and I’m sure I’ll be learning many more Japanese phrases through the complaints from my kindergartners as the year progresses haha. We’re going on a field trip to the zoo in one week, so we’ve been doing lots of zoo animal crafts. Today they practiced cutting with a snake craft. You’d be surprised how challenging it is for little tiny hands to use scissors!

May 14, Day 46: Costco in Japan?
What a familiar sight! When I would visit home in Oregon, my mom and I would always end up taking a trip to Costco (mostly just for the free samples). A coworker took me to Costco in Sendai today and I felt overwhelmingly happy and sad at the same time. What’s the word for that? The sections, aisles, and products were very similar to what you would see in America, but there were quite a few unfamiliar items, of course. The menu in the food court was practically identical too! I can’t even explain how nice it was to actually be able to read labels and signs. I left with a bag of lemons, 100 satchels of Kirkland green tea, enough English muffins to last me until December, hummus, Bob’s Red Mill Oats (!!! FROM MILWAUKIE, OR), dried blueberries, and a giant container of ground cinnamon. My mom and I both really love the Kirkland brand green tea and now I have plenty of it. The haul put quite a dent in my bank account, but I won’t be needing to buy cinnamon for the rest of my life, so I’d say it was worth it. After unpacking my groceries, I headed to the Aoba festival with some friends. Since the Costco trip took up so much room on this post (and in my kitchen cabinets), I made a separate post to explain the festival. You can find it here 🙂

May 15, Day 47:
Before coming to Japan, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I’d be eating for breakfast. Would there be oatmeal? Would I ever see a cinnamon roll again? Would my breakfast always be topped with seaweed? I feel silly now because Japan has almost everything you would find in America for breakfast. Pancakes, eggs, french toast, hash browns, pastries; you can find it all at the supermarket. I even saw eggs Benedict on a menu at a cafe. My breakfast routine hasn’t changed much from what it was in America, but I have found variations on certain foods that I have loved even more. For example, the yogurt selection is much smaller and I can’t find vanilla Greek yogurt, so I buy just plain yogurt (no sugar added). I’ve started topping it with dried blueberries and honey and it’s amazing. The oats are expensive, but they have quite a few choices and I even saw Quaker brand! I was planning to see the Zao crater today on a hike, but I had to prioritize my job (aka spend the day lesson planning). I’d rather feel prepared at the start of the week than feel the pressure of unfinished lesson plans at the end of a long teaching day. I’ll visit the crater a different day. Here’s a photo of the sunset I saw on my evening walk.

May 16, Day 48:
Would you believe me if I told you we rode ponies at school today? Sounds like a joke, doesn’t it? A big red barn at the top of my campus houses horses, miniature ponies, a donkey, sheep, goats, and a lot of pigeons. On two special days of the year, the kindergarteners get to take a short ride on the ponies. There was a lot of giggling and wide eyes as they bravely rode (one at a time) in tiny circles. Since I’m allergic to horses, I wasn’t allowed to hold the reigns and lead the horses around and my supervisor had to step in. It was a lot of fun to watch (with hand sanitizer in hand) though. Have you ever heard the superstitious idea about a full moon affecting childrens’ behavior? Well it’s true. My kids today were strangely moody, aggressive, disrespectful, and just plain odd. At one point, I had to deal with a screaming kid, a crying kid, a fully-swinging-at-my-head kid, and a kid in the bathroom who didn’t make it to the toilet. Mondays, right? I blame it on the moon.