Cherry Blossoms!

They are not in full bloom yet, but the cherry blossoms are out! I hope to have some better pictures by the weekend.


I've been going insane these past 2 days at work, because they put up an Internet filter that blocks everything: Gmail, Livejournal, Flickr, you name it. I don't use the Internet that much at work, but to check my gmail is a necessity...especially when there are no classes. I feel like my connection to the world has been ripped out for no reason. So after much tearing out of my hair, I managed to stream gmail through my cell phone. Please forgive me if you receive a response like this: "how r u? its good 2 hear from u...sory I snd stupd."

There comes a point in any ALT's career when you just wish for something exciting to happen. Days upon days of sitting at a desk can be really boring, and although the occasional class provides some excitement, it's seldom that anyone says or does anything remotely interesting. During cleaning, I try to talk to the students, but all I can usually squeak out is the old standby "I'm fine, and you?" As I sit at my desk twirling my hair, I find myself imagining what it would be like to be an ALT in one of the so-called "bad" schools, where the students ask you about penises and sex and boobies.

And then it happened: in my last 1-1 class of the year, we were playing a game where each student has a letter, and we ask them to spell out different words. Before the game started, a particularly outgoing boy had found himself the letters S-E-X and was holding them up proudly. I wanted to laugh so bad, but looking at my stern JTE's face told me that if I did, I'd get in trouble.

So I laughed inside, and continue to pray for moments like this.

In other news, the Japanese Alps are gorgeous, and snowboarding was ace:

The ni-nensei that went up a hill but came down a san-nensei

Being a teacher is one of the most depressing jobs in the world.

Picture this: Kodama-sensei, homeroom teacher of 3-1, is sitting at his desk, on which is a beautifully-decorated placard that all of his students signed. There is also a signed rugby ball from the culture festival and a huge bouquet of flowers. After the graduation ceremony this morning, he sits at his desk all day and looks shell-shocked while the students galavant outside, excited and happy.

This particular batch of graduates is especially hard for the teachers, I think. They are the most enthusiastic, intelligent kids I've ever met. There's Hiroki, the boy who loves English. He wants to be an English teacher...or maybe he just said that to impress me. Then there's Eri and Chihiro, who are very quiet in class. When they asked me to sign their yearbooks yesterday, I was so touched because I didn't know they liked me. Many of the quieter students are like that - but maybe they just like me because they sense that I am quiet, too. And even the "bad" students of this group are not that bad: this boy whose name I forgot always left his tests blank, made no attempt to speak English, but usually smiled (smirked) at me anyway. Today, he caught my eye and said something like "I understand English" (in Japanese, of course).

I will miss these kids...but more than that I am dreading the inevitable: the takeover of the NI-NENSEIS! (second-years)

Junior high school boys are between the ages of 13 and 15. Ni-nenseis are 14 years old. This is the age where girls finally stopped having cooties, but the boys are still scared shitless. For example, a ni-nensei will run up to me, say "HELLO!", and run back to his friends to have a good laugh. While a first or third year boy will politely help me put some chairs away, a ni-nensei will go out of his way to ignore me. They also like to embarass me in class by making me pronounce difficult Japanese names, and then laugh about it all class long. My JTE summed all of this up when she poignantly said, "It's a difficult age." No shit, sherlock.

The question is, when will they transform into the polite san-nenseis (third-years) I love so much? It better happen soon...or I might need to bust out some kancho...