Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Henry Moore sculpture
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Hey,

This weekend was spent in Osaka celebrating St.Patrick’s Day! It was a fun night full of painting shamrocks on faces, Irish car bombs, green beer, dancing on podiums and singing U2 is a tiny Irish pub in Osaka….good times! I also saw the “cultural side” of the city as I wondered around taking photos and visiting museums before the night of drunken antics. I saw the Picasso exhibit at the National Art Museum and visited the Science Museum before relenting and heading back to the shopping district! In the evening we headed to a night club for an all you can drink deal before hitting “Murphy’s”. We met random Japanese people on the way and dragged them with us. I’m about to post some photos so check them out later!

WAJETs
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On the Sunday we headed to “Spa World” which is a HUGE building with loads of onsen! We spent the afternoon on the Europe Floor with salt/mud baths, herbal onsen, Trevi fountain onsen and a shark onsen (the sharks weren’t actually IN the onsen but in a tank just underneath….kind of freaky tho! There was even a naked restaurant in there…the Japanese love their hot springs!

Well the end of the school year is approaching (academic year ends in April, not September) and I find that I have barely any classes! Nevertheless, I show up at my schools at 8am and stay until 4.30pm which means that I have 8 hours of surfing the internet and trying to look busy!

2nd graders
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We had graduation ceremony the other day for 9th graders (15 year olds). It has been a little confusing getting used to the education system and it is closely modeled on the American system. “Forms” are known as “grades”. Students learn “social sciences” and even have “homeroom”. Even the music played is the same as at American ceremonies. The ceremony itself was both sad/amusing. Sad because most of the 9th graders and teachers were sobbing as the children gave their speeches and amusing because of the persistant bowing. During the entire ceremony I counted at least 50 bows. Each student has to come up, bow to the Board of Education, parents, teachers and then the headmaster (or “principal”) to collect his/her diploma. They　even have to bow to the flag and bow again once sat down! People in Japan are taught how to bow from an early age. The depth of the bow indicates how much respect you want to show the person you are greeting/thanking etc. I nod my head sometimes but simply cannot keep up with how much bowing goes on! Even old ladies are capable of bowing 90 degrees…crazy.

Ryan's birthday party
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I had my last classes for the 06/07 academic year at my elementary school on Monday and as a present, the 2nd graders gave me a bound book of messages they had written to say thanks. Kids really do say the funniest things! One message translates as the following:

“I love English. Sara-sensei’s lessons are always fun. I once saw Sara in Okuwa. She was buying sushi. Please teach us next year as I like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. She has strange accent when speaking Japanese”. I am already looking forward to the new batch of wide-eyed, tiny 1st graders who will start school next month!

Pretty flowers
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I had a house party last week and two of my windows were completely smashed (someone put their hand through one in a drunken state!) so had to get someone to call my supervisor and try and make out that it happened under non-drunken circumstances! Speaking of my supervisor…he is getting married and when I said “Congratulations” he seemed to think it was weird that I was so excited about it! That happens a lot in Japan. No one seems to be overly expressive or affectionate and couples NEVER hold hands.

3rd grade graduation! Everyone cried!
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The Japanese is coming along slowly but at least I can have mini conversations with people in broken sentences. However, because the Japanese use a lot of English words transcribed in their phonetic alphabet. Their pronunciation makes it very difficult to understand. They will also slightly change the meaning of the word. For example I was talking to one of my principals and he was mumbling something under his breath so I asked him to repeat it. After 5 minutes I realised that he was saying “Jet coaster”. “Don’t you have Jet coasters in England?” assuming that I couldn’t understand my own language. I felt like saying we have “roller coasters” but the Japanese won’t say a word with both ‘l’ and ‘r’ in it! They pronounce “McDonalds” as “Mackodonaldo” and refused to accept that there is another way of pronouncing it. “Taxi” becomes “takushi” and so on.

Lunch for my principal who is retiring
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Anyways enough of the linguistics! I’m really looking forward to having more visitors next week! My dad, brother and brother’s girlfriend are coming to visit. We are going to try and cram Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Kobe, Kyoto, Hiroshima in 10 days!

Well on that note I’m going to head off. It’s almost time to pack up my stuff and get the train back to the Board of Education…bring on the Spring Vacation!

Speak to you all soon!

Sara

Thank you present from the school
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xxxx