Friday

Woke up at 7:00am this morning, ate rice with ketchup for breakfast, threw out my rubbish, and drove to school. Beautiful weather again this morning – it really feels great after all that rain! Really hope that tomorrow is good weather too so that I can finally go see some autumn leaves – the weather forecast does say it’s supposed to rain, but hopefully that’ll be a wrong forecast! An extremely relaxed day today with only 2 classes, and both of them way at the end of the day in 5th and 6th period. Didn’t really have much to do today at all, and I forgot my phone today so it was a very slow day. Managed to fill up my time by checking over all the lesson plans for the next few weeks, and wrote up a to do list of all the materials I need to make. The good thing about not having so many classes today was that I got to talk a bit more with the other staff. Talked with the tea-lady and some other teachers about dentists and healthcare in Japan, and asked them which dentists they go to cause I need to get my wisdom teeth out soon. Also got to talk about some autumn leaf spots, but it seems the spots in Takasaki haven’t changed colour yet – all the current spots good for viewing are all 1.5 to 2 hours drive away.

Lunch was really delicious today – potato gratin and a croissant, and vegetable soup. The librarian was so cute today – since I forgot my phone today she took a photo of the lunch using her phone to send to me later. My JTE wasn't here today so I did the lunchtime broadcast by myself. I got to talk to the 6th graders who were in charge of the broadcast today – looks like the roster has changed cause they were new, but we got to talk casually a bit and they both said that they study English “for their future” which was super cute. Spent the lunchtime with some 1st graders who were playing indoors. They were having intense battles of paper scissors rock, and drawing pictures and stuff. Cleaning time was nice and easy today, this week’s batch of kids are really good. Gave them animal stickers today. Finally a class to teach after a long wait from this morning! Did the Halloween class with 1-3 and again just a lot of fun. 1-3 is really just such a sweet sweet class. They were like “Is this for us to take home!?” “Is this a souvenir!?” (for the Halloween craft) and when I said yes they’re like “OMYGOSH THANK YOU SO MUCH” (not literally, but that’s the feel they gave off). One kid was like “I’m gonna give this to my grandma” (his craft was a little ghost) which the homeroom teacher laughed at too. This class was also really good with the vocab – when I did the final check in the last 5 minutes they remembered all the vocab.

Last class with 6-2 in 6th period and they had changed seats yet again. I think I can remember at least half the kids’ names though. Just takes me a little longer to remember the quiet kids names, or the kids that I don't interact with much. Today’s class was a lot of fun! The two “brothers” are still sitting near each other, and they were being hilarious today with putting on an “American” accent. When I asked them why they rolled their tongues like that, or made such heavy “r” sounds, they were like “We’re imitating Trump” which I just laughed at. I let them continue, since, well, it’s Trump. We did the numbers game again since they didn’t do it too well last week. They struggled again this week, but we managed to play the different versions where they have to clap on every multiple of 3, and then another round of clapping on every multiple of 5. Then we got them to write out their own daily schedules (what time they wake up, what time they eat breakfast, etc.) which we will use for games later on in the unit. It was so interesting seeing what time they all wake up and what time they come to school. They all wake up so early!? Like practically all of them wake up at 6:00am or 6:30am, with some kids even waking up at 5:00am cause they live further away. They all head to school super early too – at like 6:50am, and 7:00am. Some sleep a little later than what I’d expect for elementary students (10:00pm) but that’s because a lot of them already go to cram schools (塾) and have a lot of after school learning activities. A few kids were asking which day’s schedule they should write, and the JTE said any day they don’t have stuff after school, but then they were like “We have something after school every single day!”. Although I kind of expected it (like in HK where kids basically don’t have a life after school) I thought Japan might be a tad different since their elementary schools seem so relaxed, but I guess not. The pressure and expectation to do well academically is just too in your face. Finished up with testing them again on times, and a lot of them still got confused between the “teen” and the “ty”. I purposely put in a lot of “teen” and the two “brothers” were being funny again by emphasizing the “n” at the end. I’d say something like 11:15, and they’d be like “fifteeeeNNNNN?”. At least that meant that they got it right though! Got talking a bit with my JTE as well about what time she wakes up and stuff, and she wakes up everyday at 5:00am!!! She said it’s because she likes to do all her cleaning and stuff in the morning, so that she won’t have to do it after work, which is actually pretty smart, but I just don't know if I could wake up so early every single day!

Got off work at 16:30 and drove home. The sunset tonight was gorgeous with a golden egg-yolk sun, but I didn't have my phone with me so I couldn't take a photo!!! Ran in to get my phone as soon as I got home, but by the time I headed out again the sun had already set. Made a mushroom and tofu don for dinner!