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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Sports festival and more drinking....

September 12th
It’s my first day of sports festivals and Hamaya-san is picking me up at 8:15am.  Unknowingly, I am chauffeured to three different schools to make an appearance for the students.  At each school, I want to stay and watch but am quickly hurried away to make the trip to the next school.  
Red vs. white

We eat a great sashimi, fried food mix, and onigiri lunch at Osaki Junior High.  After lunch, they have me run in a relay with some other teachers.  My job is to push an inner-tube around a ¼ of a dirt track.  The other teachers have to balance a ball on a giant spatula and then dunk their head in water to search for candy in a container of flour.  The crowd of parents and students are laughing hysterically, but applaud when our team wins.
Folk Dancing

Through the rest of the festival, we get some heavy rain in 3 minute bursts, and the students do a crazy relay.  They begin climbing over the backs of their team, then everyone has to do 10 jumps at the same time in a huge jump rope.  Finally, climbing over teammates’ backs again until they reach a female group that has to do the same thing they just finished.  
Kocho-sensei and the rain

It was a great festival, showcasing the students’ individual and group abilities.  I was so proud to even be in their presence. I almost forgot that there was a cute little girl who wouldn’t stop sneaking up to me and then running away when I caught her.  I asked her mom if I could take her picture, and the mom thanked me.  It really is backwards here.
So freaking adorable!

My principal reminded me that he was having a party at ‘his’ place a couple hours later, so I promised to be there.  He pointed to an orange roof, saying that’s the place to meet for dinner and drinking.  It turns out the place is a huge vegetable packing place and we are renting/using the outside area for our party.  Vegetable crates are turned into chairs, BBQs are scattered everywhere, plates of meat and veggies are brought out, and here comes the booze.  C’mon people, it’s a Sunday night!  The party consists of students’ parents, teachers, and of course the principal.  We eat tons of great food and veggies, then completely empty the bar of beer, chu-hi, and shochu. 
BBQ at the vegetable packing building

What a great night, that was worth it even though it was a Sunday night and I have to wake up early tomorrow.  But what’s this!!??  My principal is telling me to follow him with a few other guys down the street?  Oh, they’re probably just walking me home, it’s in that direction.  Ohh, left turn I’ve never seen before, where the heck are we going. 
I enter my principal’s house to find that his wife has been cooking a FEAST!  

Why exactly did we just have a BBQ and drinking party at an old vegetable packing building?  There are dishes upon dishes of delicious food, and the coolers are filled with beer and shochu. 

My night…has yet to start. 
Here he comes, the man himself…Mr. Dangerous Man!  He has been good all night, staying fairly calm at the outdoor BBQ.  Shochu, beer, and more shochu later, he’s yelling at the top of his lungs and going nuts!  Beer on the tatami!?  He doesn’t care.  
Awesome guy who lent me his surfboard and Dangerous Man!

The entire place is filled with the patrons of the other BBQ and people are getting sloshed.  My principal’s wife, who I didn’t get to meet, let alone see for more than 7 minutes, was too busy re-filling plates with freshly made food, re-stocking the beer cooler, and bringing dessert to everyone.  The night finally started slowing down and there were still loads of food on the table.  I excused myself with some others and stumbled home.  Great, I should be able to get a full 3 hours of sleep tonight.

September 13th
I was able to wake up this morning, thank goodness.  Made it to my school and introduced myself to two new classes.  After lunch, the kids invited me to play dodgeball on the field.  I had one girl hiding behind me the entire time and laughing hysterically.  I would catch the ball and try to hand it to her, but she would just laugh and jump while giggling.  One boy, on the other team, kept trying to peg me with the ball.  Let’s just say I wound up a few times and knocked him to the ground…literally.  The kids out here are much more resilient than those in the US.  No complaining over scratched knees, just laughs all around.  I had another boy hanging all over me the next period.  The kid wouldn’t stop hugging me throughout the class.  I now know what it feels like to have a remora on my back (google it if you don’t know).  After classes, I drove to the beach to spearfish and found some fish I have never seen.  They look like blowfish, burying themselves under the sand with only their green/blue eyes protruding.  I poked 3 or 4 of them in the sand to make them move and they were probably 5-7 inches long.  One followed me and tried to eat my foot on multiple occasions.  If no one can figure this out, it’ll probably be my ‘reasonable excuse’ for buying an underwater camera J  

1 comment:

  1. i love dangerous man. but not as much as the little girl and her mother xoxo

    ReplyDelete