Transform to Tokyo

I woke up for my first day of school and dressed in the first time in my shirt and trousers. They don`t really suit me I don`t think but this wasn`t my choice. I have taken a very poor picture of this so that you can see how weird I looked. After having a good bowl of Frosties me and Mike walked to school, punched in and met Barney-sensei in the ELC. Time for our first lesson. After flipping a coin or something (our usual method of decision) it was decided I would have my first lesson with Barney-sensei.

In the lesson, all I had to do was introduce myself, be asked questions, go around and help kids with their summer vacation speeches and then listen to some and with Barney-sensei, grade them. This went okay, my slow introduction in English with the aid of some pictures and the white board went okay, though I was kind of surprised at the behavior of the students. I would expect, since everywhere else I have been has had everyone being polite and courteous to the nth degree that the children in school would be the same, but no. I was surprised (though I guess I shouldn`t have been surprised) that they are all just like normal kids from anywhere in the world. After my intro came the questions…or did they. No-one was really up for asking me any questions, but I think I got some, maybes even if they were forced by Barney. I even got some random questions throughout the day like “Do you have a girlfriend?” but Mike definitely got a lot more questions like that than I did, so I was kind of glad.

Second lesson was the lesson that I will never forget as it is currently the most embarrassing moment in my life, and it wasn`t even my fault. I asked Barney-sensei which floor to go to for 1-3 class, the junior class I had next, He told me, “Oh, just go up to the 6th floor and look for the 1-3 on the door”. I did exactly this, but noticed an entire class of students in there with no teacher at all. I went in and sat down at the teachers desk, after an uproar from the students in the class, some laughing, some shouting and others just looking confused. Some were even standing up from the back to check it was true. They all thought that this brand new Caucasian guy was about to teach them about Japanese Classics. The real teacher came to the door and my relief, well, not really relief but still. I went to the door, tried to apologise and left the classroom to tlak to the teacher. She had no English skills what-so-ever and I stood there kind of talking at her for a bit, trying to explain my situation with the tiny bits of Japanese I knew mixed with English. Luckily after a while a teacher in another classroom noticed us and came outside to my rescue. He had a bit of English skill and I think that it was all sorted out…I hoped.

All of the lessons went pretty similarly, though obviously the seniors were better behaved than the juniors, which was a nice bit of a break. We then found out from Nakahara-sensei that we must introduce ourselves in Japanese to all of the staff in the auditorium before their staff meeting. This was immensely scary, especially all of my Japanese skill had suddenly been lost. They seemed very impressed with Mike`s speech, and afterwards my speech was short and after I told them, “My Japanese is bad isn`t it?” they all laughed. I hoped they were laughing with me.

After the meeting Mike was invited to join the English speaking club, however I wasn`t so I was left alone in the ELC. Lindsey turned up however, so I was able to talk to her for a bit before she left to go and meet one of her friends. Lindsey is an ex-volunteer so she kind of o\understood my day as `an average first day at Jun Ten`. Tis made me feel a bit better.

We went out for some ramen in quite a small ramen bar, but it seemed pretty cool and the ramen was good. We then got some pudding from Mr Donut (one of our best friends), went home, played Wave Race for a bit and did some more ironing, ready for another day of work the next day…

Me on my first morning - Picture!