Friday

Sports day is tomorrow!!! Woke up at 7:00am (last night was actually cool for a change! Might be time to bring out the thicker blanket) and had a banana, and rice with corn soup (their instant soup mixes here are so good) for breakfast. Cycled to school again this morning because it was really perfect weather, and since mornings are usually cool temperatures now, it makes the cycle really nice and refreshing. It’s always just the cycle home that is extra windy and tough.

A very relaxed day of only two classes today! First one was in period 2 with 1st graders. Today was their last lesson on animals. 1-3 is really quiet and well behaved. They’re probably the most well behaved out of all the 1st graders! I told this to the homeroom teacher and she laughed haha. They remembered their animal names very well, but again the same problem as other classes – when it’s on the blackboard they remember it fine, but when we play games with the smaller animal flash cards, some of them just suddenly forget it all. This class is also the epitome of putting their hand up to answer, only to say “忘れちゃいました” straight away. It’s just too funny and cute – even though I’m sure the homeroom teacher has seen it many times before, even she still laughs at it. Also managed to do the zoo presentations today with a few kids, and they did it pretty well! Just needed constant reminders to speak louder.

Next up was 6th grade in period 4. Last lesson of the unit, so it was just finishing off presentations and doing the summary test. This class presented a bit better than the other class – there were more kids that spoke louder and smoother in this class. The kids were a tiny bit more restless today than other days, but they’re still a fine class. Their homeroom teacher came in at the end saying jokingly sorry that they’re always so noisy and silly, but I told her that her class is probably the best class in the school. They’re just sweet kids, and noise is better than silence (for English class at least since we need participation!) and she just laughed and said I was being kind haha. Lunch today was カツ丼 with cucumber and soup. They always eat カツ丼 before their sports days because the かつ from とんかつ is the same word for “win” in Japanese (勝つ). It’s a really cute tradition I reckon – they also gift Kit Kats before exams and matches as well, because Kit Kat in Japanese (キットカット) sounds like “you’ll surely win” (きっと勝つ). The tea-lady handed out sports drinks for tomorrow’s sports day and said that we could take it home to put in the fridge so that it’s cold for tomorrow! During 5th and 6th periods, the whole school went outside to set up for the sports day tomorrow (only grades 3-6 though – grades 1 and 2 went home early after lunch in prep for tomorrow) so it was just me, the librarian, and the nutritionist left in the office. Felt a bit bad seeing everyone else running around super busy outside (the caretaker was running back and forth between the grounds and the teachers’ office, saying how this was the busiest time of the year for him), but they told me to stay in the office to keep the librarian company, and juuuust in case the phone rings too. The grounds are all colourful now with flags and stuff put up though so it looks great!

Got off work at 16:30 today after the meeting for tomorrow’s sports day finished. Cycled home, made dumplings, and had an early night since I have to be at school at 7:30am tomorrow!!!