Oct. 4th - 8th

October 4^th

Another typical day.  Introduced myself to a couple new classes and had kids give great responses.  “My name is Toji.  I like banana.  I like AKB48,” immediately followed by an eruption of laughter from the class.  AKB48 is a group of 48 Japanese singers.  The girls are split into 3 teams and they have to perform once a day for live audiences.  ALL the boys in my schools have trading cards, folders, and pictures of these girls.  They all claim that they are the boyfriends of AKB48.  Anywho, this proclamation of “I like AKB48” happened in all three of my new classes.  I’m, for a lack of other words, over it. 

This is AKB48

I don’t know how many times I’ve mentioned it, but the way students behave in school differs a lot from schools in the states.  The kids are very disciplined, but the teachers allow for disruptive behavior in the class without a peep to try and stop them from talking, throwing things, getting out of their seats, etc.  I can’t figure it out.  I had one student who wouldn’t stop talking during the class, so I decided to see what would happen if I called him out to answer some questions.  I think I caught my JTE off guard, but it worked and he was silent the rest of the period.  Maybe it was the other kids laughing at the situation, or the fact that he didn’t want to answer so many questions, but I’m going to start doing this more often. 

Two other things caught my attention today.  1. I’ve noticed the kids never ask to use the restroom and they get excited about things like a breeze.  I’ve been here nearly 3 months and I’ve never even seen a student ask to leave the room.  2.  Without warning, a breeze blew through the class and the students flipped their lids.  They were looking out the window as if they were going to see something, but of course there was nothing.  I still can’t figure out the kids.  Ate lunch at the teacher’s desk and kept asking him questions in Japanese, but we was reluctant to start any form of conversation.  The kids sat there and giggled when he would give me 2 word responses.  Played volleyball at lunch.

After school I went home, went to taiko practice, and that was it.

October 5^th

Today at school, a kid comes up to me and starts singing, “I like you, I want you, I love you.”  Any ideas on how I should be responding?  I haven’t got a clue.  My JTE and I are walk-sprinting to class and are surprised when there aren’t any students.  We go back and forth from the office to the classroom 3 times, alert the principal, everyone is running around looking for the kids, and my teacher finally realizes that she changed the schedule last week.  Today I was paid to teach one class and run around looking for a non-existent class. 

October 6^th-8^th

Can’t really remember what happened these days.  This is what I get for slacking on the journal.