Apologies for the lack of blog activity of late, I've been saving up for a blog about a week at school, with no interruptions. Last week was somewhat of a mess, with Monday and Friday public holidays (Respect for the Elderly Day and Autumnal Equinox Day respectively) and Wednesday school was cancelled after an hour (one wonders why I ever turned up) due to typhoon Roke hitting the Japanese mainland. To give you an idea of how serious typhoons are in Japan, Roke killed 6 people and caused millions of dollars worth of damage, plus cancelled trains all across the Kanto Plain, stranding thousands in Tokyo, Yokohama, Shizuoka etc.
So, to the blog. In this blog I want to give you an idea of my average week, plus a few of the things that happened this week, gave it some flair you know?
My trusty cellphone alarm goes off at 6.00 am every morning, and I spend half an hour packing my bag, checking emails, facebook etc, washing my face, and getting my uniform ready. At 6.30 I go downstairs to the kitchen/dining room to the sound of Akira, my host father, doing his calisthenics on the radio. (Ichi, ni, san, yon whilst doing various squats, arm waves etc etc) Midori, my host mother, like most Japanese mothers, has been up since I honestly don't know when, and already has bacon, eggs and vegetables grilling on the stove top, and toast in the toaster. I go to the fridge with my glass, scoop some ice into it and then fill it with mineral water (when Midori learnt that I prefer water to Japanese tea, she went and bought 24 two litre bottles of mineral water-that's 48 litres!) and sit at the table, which has already been set. At about 6.40, sauasages/ham, eggs, vegetables and a slice of toast are on my plate, and I put either NZ honey or strawberry jam on the toast, and wolf it down. At 6.50 I'm heading back upstairs, to brush my teeth, finish packing my bag, get changed, and then at about quarter past 7 I'm back downstairs where Midori hands me my bento box (packed lunch), which goes into my bag with a bottle of Italian mineral water (for school she bought 30 500ml bottles of water-15 litres) If I'm allowed in the kitchen (sometimes I get shooed out), I'll help with the dishes, otherwise I pet the cats or loiter for 15-20 minutes, and then between 6.35-6.40, it's time to go. Heading outside with an 'itte kimasu' - I'll be back, I put my bag in the front basket of my bike, and head towards Shake station. It's a 5-7 minute ride, and I meet my friends Nonoka and Ayaka at Shake station, boarding the train to Kita-Chigasaki at 7.53 exactly. At the station after Shake, Kadosawabashi, we are met by our friends, the twins Iori and Shiori, and for about 15 minutes ride the relatively (but not by Japanese standards) cramped train, disembarking at Kita-Chigasaki. From the station it's a 10 minute walk to Tsurumine Koko, and so I arrive at around 8.30. Going to my homeroom, I say 'ohayo, saikin doyo' (Morning, what's up?) to those who arrived before me, say 'agepoyo' (I'm happy/excitied/well), and then play a game or listen to music before the bell rings.
With the bell school commences, and with it comes a variety of fun, boring, soporific, mildly entertaining and downright burdensome. My timetable is different for every day.
I particularly enjoy music, modern Japanese, current English and special Japanese, they are all classes that I actively participate in, sometimes teach, in the case of English, and in special Japanese, which is for the two gaikokujin at school (myself and a Finnish girl, Mari), the teachers bring us chocolate and lollies for the end of class.
PE, regular English and science are classes that can be good or average, varies from day to day. PE is very good if it's swimming, my years of swim training pay off, and despite me not swimming for 6 months before coming here, I am still second fastest. Plus in the heat of the Japanese summer, swimming was fantastic. I've proven my worth (if it can be called that) in volleyball, though my softball skills leave a lot to be desired.
The Japanese school system permits sleeping in class, something my classmates regularly take advantage of, and I unfortunately find myself precariously close to falling asleep in my maths and bio periods. Biology was one of my options, thinking it would be similar to biology in New Zealand colleges, but boyo was I wrong. The teacher talks at the class for 50 minutes, drawing pictures on the chalkboard (there are no whiteboards) and maths, hot damn I can't understand maths in English, so in Japanese is just gobbledygook.
Monday
Current Society (social studies)
Biology
Maths
Science
Current English
English
Tuesday
PE
Modern Japanese
English
Biology
Special Japanese
Special Japanese
Wednesday
Biology
Music
English
PE
Classical Japanese
Maths
Thursday
Classical Japanese
English
Health
Maths
Long Homeroom (often an assembly)
PE
Friday
Maths
Biology
Modern Japanese
Science
Special Japanese
Special Japanese
All classes are 50 minutes, and instead of having a 20-25 minute interval like in NZ, instead each class has a 10 minute break in between. This is used to get to class, go to the toilet, eat something, get changed for PE etc. At the end of this 10 minutes a bell rings, and the next class commences. At 12.40 lunchtime begins, but unlike at NZ schools, we don't go outside and play handball, football, whatever, we sit at our desks in our friend groups and do very little, though to its credit, lunch itself is very nice, I have rice, often tempura, katsudon, salad, sausage and a couple of cookies, plus my bottle of Italian mineral water. After lunch finishes at 1.25, it's off to periods 5 and 6, and then at 3.15 school is over for the day.
However, this does not mean that everything is finished for the day. There is usually 'soji' which is where each homeroom is assigned a classroom to clean, so out come the brooms and dustpans, and we spend about 15 minutes sweeping the room. I'm rather fortunate that the days my homeroom has soji are the days I have special Japanese, which finishes a little later than the rest of the school, so I am finishing up my study whilst my classmates upstairs are sweeping :)
Japanese society has a very strong group mentality, everyone has a very defined group where they fit in, and all have the same norms, hobbies etc. Loners are often made into pariahs, so it is definately a good idea to find a group and become a part of it. Of course being a foreigner (and famous at that ;) ) makes this easy, everyone is happy to include you, and so there is little risk of becoming a pariah at school. This group mentality manifests itself in the afterschool club activity program. All Japanese schools have clubs, and over 3/4 of students are in such a club. They range from sports clubs (tennis, baseball, basketball, kendo, judo, dance) to culture clubs (tea ceremony, band, chorus, drama, manga, English society) Most clubs go from 3.30 to 6, though it's not uncommon for them to finish half an hour either side of this. Being part of a club guarantees you will be in a society that you fit into, thus will not be a pariah, but also has its responsibilites. You have to commit to going to the practices, which sometimes happen on a Saturday, and for many of them it requires practice at home (in the case of music, drama, or the sporting clubs)
The two clubs I belong to are the English Speaking Society, which is a smallish group of people who want to improve their English speaking ability, so I help out with that, plus I learn some Japanese as a result. The other club is the chorus club, a group of pianists (which I am slowly becoming) and singers, there are a couple of performances they are doing in October and December, I'm going to be performing with them at the Christmas Recital in December. For me, club is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, with Friday being my day off.
On the days I have club, I'll walk to the station and board the train home at around 6.00, arriving home just before 6.30. After getting home, I get changed, empty my bag, practice piano for half an hour to an hour, until Midori arrives, at which point I'll do some homework, check my emails and facebook again, sometimes watch a movie, and then it's dinner time. After dinner, at around 8-8.30, I'll do kanji revision, then prepare my bag for school the next day, have a shower at around 9.30-10, and then relax with Midori and Akira if he is home yet, and then at 10.30 I head upstairs for bed.
Monday after school was spent in town with Ayaka and Iori, managed to get them 'drunk' on chocolate, they were decidedly crazy after eating 250g of Willy Wonka Creamy Caramel Chocolate each, I got a good laugh from that. Tuesday was unremarkable as a day, did very little besides piano practice, though now I've got 'Waltzing Matilda' sorted. Wednesday was English Speaking Society, for that they decided to watch an English speaking DVD, and of course they chose High School Musical over Peter Pan or Spiderman, but it was quite nice to be able to understand a movie even when not looking at the screen for once! Thursday was a slightly disjointed day, for 5th and 6th periods all 2nd graders (year 12s), of which I am a part of, went to the hall to watch a movie for the upcoming Okinawa trip. I knew the movie was about Okinawa, but I had no idea as to what it would show. Turns out it was a dramatisation of the Battle for Okinawa, the last great battle of World War II, shown from the perspective of a class of 15 year old girls. Needless to say, it was mighty awkward being the only foreigner in the room, much less being one whose country was allied with the nation that invaded Okinawa. After the movie, everyone was understandably gloomy, the movie ending with ~spoiler alert~ half of the surviving girls being gassed in a cave, and the other half killing themselves with grenades on the last beach to be taken by the Americans. So not an especially happy movie, it must be said. One of the girls in my class asked what I thought of it, so whilst trying to be tactful, I said that it represented the end of Japan's craziness, and as a result of Okinawa, there is peace in Japan. I also said that because few, if any, New Zealanders went to Okinawa during the battle, I felt alright. Unfortunately she then said 'I think Japan and New Zealand didn't fight during the war', that made it even more awkward, this image came to mind...
Friday was a fairly good day, after Special Japanese, Mari and I walked to Chigasaki and went to Starbucks 'bah!' and had a coffee/le grande cocoa jelly frappamochialattespresscafeaulait whatever it was, was quite surprised when the waitress came up to us and immediately started talking in Japanese, that she assumed (correctly) that we would understand was quite cool :D
And so concluded a week at Tsurumine High School, had it's ups and downs, as all weeks do, but nonetheless, a very fun week, as every week is here! Hope it has given you an idea of what I get up to in my week, how I fill my time etc, and also that '平和が一番です！’ -Peace is best!
That's all from me for now from Ebina-shi, Under the Kanagawan Sun!
Sayonara!
Toroi
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