一日中泣きました。 I cried the whole day.

Today was the 'sayonara' party for the 3rd years at Honjo JHS! In celebration of their three years at middle school, we played dodge ball and had ourselves a picnic lunch (in the meeting room).

The first years put on a quiz for everyone! They switched clothes and unbuttoned buttons and moved around hairstyles and the rest of us had to guess what was different! The second years presented 'teacher trivia' and asked questions such as;

What is Kyoto-sensei's favourite colour? (Vice Principal)
How old is Rachel-sensei?
What is Mr. Nishimura's hobby?

Finally there was a drawing contest involving all the grades! The student council announced something that the contestants had to draw. Such as, "the world", "Amanohashidate", "Doraemon", "Yoshi", and a few more that I can't remember. The students would display their works and the teachers (and Rachel) decided whose was the best!

The downer of the day was that my JTE's grandfather passed away and she had to leave school to go home. Not only is it a bummer to have someone in your family die, but she also had to miss a day that she'd really worked hard for and looked forward to all week! It seemed really unfair to me.

The last event of the day was in the music room. The whole school (easily 65 people) sat down and watched a slide show of pictures throughout the school years of the current 3rd year students. It began with pictures of them as first years and showed all the activities they'd taken part of. It was a really cute presentation! Afterwards, it was time for the teachers to deliver their personal messages to each individual student. There are only nine third year students (even I can name them all off with ease), so it was very personal.

Each teacher chose a student they were close to and wrote them something to the effect of, "You've become a leader/You've shown such prowess through the years./I remember when you first came to school..." and so on. I was again bummed that Tsuji-sensei wasn't around to read her passage to Kenta. She teaches the two slow-learner students for homeroom (which is mainly kanji, as I understand it). She and Kenta are really close and it was a shame she wasn't there. Anyway, all it took was a single crack in the music teacher's voice and all stoicness in the room was gone. The rest of the female teachers began to crack and tear up when they read out their passages. This led to the female students beginning to tear up and sniffle. In five minutes there wasn't a man, woman or child in that room who wasn't crying. It was one of the most emotional times I've ever had, I don't even know how to explain why. How can something feel like too much when it doesn't seem like enough? I don't even speak Japanese well enough to understand what's being said, but I understand enough, I suppose. For me, my breaking point was looking across the room and seeing Hayato, the captain of the baseball team in tears. Not just tears in his eyes, but steaming down his cheeks. He wasn't holding back, he was done. All the boys were crying -- and I couldn't stop after that. These kids bike in the ice cold winter for MILES around! They are up from dawn until dusk working their asses off at school, sports, and on their studies -- not to mention household chores! I couldn't believe the amount of emotion in that room, it was almost unbearable. After the teachers sang a song to the students, it was time for the 3rd years to deliver their messages to the first and second year students. The kids got it together (bleary eyed as they were) and said encouraging words of advise to the other students. Then the second to last girl, Sayaka, the QUIETEST girl in the school began to read hers and just BURST into tears. Hysterical sobs. She couldn't finish for a good two minutes. It was awkward, and everyone else started to tear up again. Anyway, we got through it.

Fifteen minutes later I was walking to my car and couldn't hold back any longer. I started crying and I didn't stop for a good two hours. I couldn't even tell you what I was crying about.

To take my mind off whatever it was that was making me feel more and more helpless and uncomfortable, I took a drive around the high cliffs which border the coast of the Sea of Japan. Thank God for the sea, that's all I have to say about that.

Kenta! He is the disabled learner of his grade -- but he got into HS! Wahoo!

Instead of party snow. Alas.

Well, I was supposed to go to Marina's surprise birthday party tonight, which would have been nice for a few hours, but instead it decided to snow all day!

So I spent the day in my newly rearranged room (with the heeeater) and enjoyed catching up with some people, making cut out tigers, and walking around in the snow! Here are pictures of tigers and snow, ... I don't feel a need to clarify them further.

(this is technicaclly my 'backyard'?)
Follow the tiger head's advice for a promising future in dental hygiene.

Honjo Elem, double feature friday, praying mantids

Double Feature Friday

Honjo Elementary school was on Friday. I taught the kids about types of fishes, colours, and things you have with you at school. A lot of "fruit basket" was played, and it was my first time doing it so it was pretty funny watching the kids run around and whack into each other. One of the teachers joined (a lady in her late 30's wearing a sweater vest) and she took some nasty spills. Tatami mats, hyperactive kids and socks aren't exactly a non-injurious mix. I was really tired from running around with children so during one period when I didn't have a lesson, I sneaked off to the library and napped in secrecy. I plan on making a bad habit of it since nobody ever GOES to the library. They're just for show. After classes I played with the kids for awhile, being kidnapped this time by the 2nd years who made me do the tire swing with them over and over and over. But pushing kids on swings is kind of fun in an eerie "oh god I'm old and maternal" sort of way. I also had the pleasure of having a full sized praying mantis thrown at me multiple times. I think the mantis was about as pleased about it as I was. Watching Rechel-sensei screaming and flailing down the hallway was probably the highlight of those rotten kids' day. Other than that, Desi and Andy came over for what was the first "Double Feature Friday" that I've put together. Possibly the first of many, possibly the first and last. Depends on whether I want to bother with people saying they'll come and not bothering or not telling me anything and then planning on showing up randomly. Not cool. We watched House of 1000 Corpses which was... odd. Then we watched Monster House which is a pretty good movie. Desi took over my kitchen and we all made curry (mostly her) and had some beers and chocolate covered bananas and coffee. Marvelous. It was nice having house guests. I even made up a couch/bed for them, which I like very much and I think I'll keep it around for awhile. It's mostly just futons and pillows piled in a couch-shape and covered with a quilt. Yay!

Praying Mantis Pornography

The next morning we were outside while Andy enjoyed a crisp Autumn cigarette. I noticed two praying mantises wandering around. They are everywhere nowadays! One was big, one medium sized. I said "look there's two of them!" and Desi and Andy looked just in time to watch the big one grab the little one and devour him. I guess it was their post coital ritual of ... DEATH. So we spent about 30 minutes watching the lady mantis eat her hubby. It was really really really gross/AWESOME. Hooray for nature in my front yard! Grabbed lunch in Mineyama with Desi and Andy and Marina. We got some pretty good pizza and it was very nice and laid back. Then I stopped off at a weird bedding/ugly clothing store and bought a big fuzzy blanket, a runner for the hallway, and a cool toilet paper holder. It was my first contribution to the house, actually. I've been a lousy JET when it comes to decorating. I was inspired by a really bizarre package I got from Mom and Dad which had random awesome dolls in it, rubber gloves, shoe polish, peanut butter, a book on Russian embroidery, embroidery by my mum (which is on the wall now), toothpaste, whitening strips, and socks. I needed places to put things, so I decided to turn my house into an ACTUAL house this weekend. And it's well on its way. I get more excited about it when people actually come over, otherwise it's kind of boring having a big amazing house with no one around to see it :(

Messy Desk, Lots of Nature

A Very Messy Desk, Indeed

Well there's not much to write about this weekend. Thank goodness, it was quiet and gave me a chance to catch up on things, such as cleaning. I finally cleaned the desk upstairs... it only took me three and a half hours and minor paper cuts to get it finished up. All that's left now is sorting the trash... and then cleaning out the downstairs closet. I'm really nervous about finding bugs in there, so I might have to down a few beers first to give me the beer-energy I need to clean bug-closets. We'll see. Or maybe I could get into the Ine-JET spirit of LEAVING ALL MY GARBAGE FOR THE NEXT PERSON.

Voila!

Anyway it's CLEAN and that is what matters. After a long few days in my own home (which I'm happy to be back in) I'm going to Miyazu city to have dinner with the boys and girls and to look around at Mipple for things like CDs and perhaps a few cheap items of clothing or indoor shoes for the schools. Thankfully I have enough school supplies which I plundered from the desk cleaning. I certainly don't need any stickers, pens, pencils, erasers, glue, white out, folders, binders, loose leaf, hole punchers, staplers, staples, paper clips or push pins EVER AGAIN. I could stay the next decade and never run out. It's kind of awesome, actually. Anyway the longish drive seems worth it just to get some sushi and outside-air into my weekend before school starts.

School starts tomorrow. I'm not excited so much as confused and possibly nervous. I just want this first week to be OVER so I can get into the swing of it. I have to give a speech... I don't want to give a speech. At all.

Other than that, here are some nature sightings/stories for the week:

1. Kumo-chan. My door spider is getting pretty big. He's gone from a dull brown to being shades of vivid green! He's turning into quite the handsome little arachnid, but it may mean he's getting too big to live on my porch. Moving day will be soon, hope he doesn't mind! Perhaps it's time to give him a proper name as well. I am thinking Kaminari-san, which means thunderstorm. He's scared of them, so I figure naming him after one will make him stronger. Or ironic.

2. Mona is still doing well. I swear she is bigger, but I can't tell anymore.

3. One monkey sighting this week! A female monkey climbing up the roadside wall. Fuzzy butts = cute monkeys. She doesn't have one of those weird monkey butts, hers is quite charming. Fuzzy!

4. A praying mantis "hoofing it" I believe, across the road. They move FAST when they want to. I didn't know quite what it was as I passed by. I think it's the third one I've seen in my entire life, and they always seem to show up in strange places.

5. Heron... I suppose they're not strange or anything, but as I was biking to the store a few of them flew beside me and landed in the rice fields. They're really beautiful birds, other than that... not worth mentioning.

6. The jumping snake! I don't know if snakes usually do this, or if it had been hit by a car, but I saw a snake jumping in the road! It sort of ... sat up (as a cobra does out of a basket) and was thrusting its head forward and its body followed in something like a JUMP. Jumping snake! So for you guys who know about... animals? Do snakes normally jump? Or do you think it was injured in the road? Or by a bird? I don't much like to think that snakes can jump... it makes me feel like a surprise, snake-related death could be more imminent.

7. Mystery night creature : I was reading in bed last night about 10pm (yes I go to bed early, even on weekends) when I heard this sudden thumping against my balcony window. Mind you, my balcony is on the 2nd floor. And there is a fence around it. WHAT, then, was trying to get into my room and kill me? It didn't sound like a moth. Or a spider... in fact it sounded like something of decent size... like a rat or a large frog. But every once in awhile it would bang against the glass or scratch on the screen. I knew my door was locked, so I wasn't completely terrified. But I was so so so curious as to what it was, why it was trying to get in, and HOW it got there. I supposed it could have been a small bat that lost its way, or even a large cicada. Either way I didn't really want to know in the dark by myself. It would require opening a curtain slowly, and that always results in scary, gruesome death (in movies). I decided if it was something I ought to see, it would be there in the morning.
It wasn't. I will never know what it was. The JETs and I are calling it the Ine-dragon that scared Tamar away.