Tuesday - Ashikaga Illumination!

Woke up at 7:00am, had some snacks for breakfast, threw out the rubbish, and then drove to school. A busy day today with all 6 periods filled. First up was 5-1 and they were actually really good today! Because of schedule changes, they had 2 periods of English in a row but they did good in both of them. They weren’t too noisy or rowdy today and listened well, and I think most of them understood “What do you study?” and “I study (subject)” so it was great. The textbook that we use has digital materials too and they actually had a good section today where they had video clips of other countries’ classes, so that was pretty cool for the kids to watch. The clip for Australia was of their Japanese class, so the kids were all like “wow” at foreign kids learning Japanese.

Next up was 2-1 and today was a bit different because I was teaching with 2-3’s homeroom teacher instead of 2-1, because we were practicing for Friday’s observation lesson with her class. The class went pretty well and we worked out some places we needed to improve on so that we could have the smoothest class on Friday. The kids had a lot of fun with the matching card game, and also the group charades game. Class with 2-2 next and it went pretty well too. All the kids are in good moods today and trying hard in English class! 2-2 was a bit smoother with the group charades, but some kids were a bit shy to act. But then on the other hand there were some kids who did great acting, especially the group who had to act out “police officer”. They had 2 kids be the “criminals” and then 2 kids be the “police” who arrested them – it was hilarious.

Lunch with 5-1 today and they do things a bit differently by sending two kids to come get me from the staffroom when they’re ready. 5-1’s homeroom teacher is really cool and chill, and the kids all call him affectionately his name + ちゃん instead of the usual name + 先生. Lunchtime was fun too and the kids were all just chatting casually and it was a really nice atmosphere. I found it super cute that they were talking about celebrities, and some boys were talking about a recently popular actor, and asking each other if they thought that actor was cool or not. You don’t really hear boys in Western countries talking about celebrities and who they find cool or not, so I thought it was cute that in Japan boys can fan on celebrities too. Cleaning time was a bit noisy today with the kids being a bit hyper.

Last two periods with 5-2 and they weren’t as good as 5-1 were this morning. My JTE and I wondered if it was because of the morning lesson VS. afternoon lesson difference. There were a few kids in 5-2 who were trying really hard though, but also quite a few kids not doing work at all and just doodling and stuff. It’s always heartwarming to see the kids who try hard, and always a little bit disheartening to see kids not pay attention to English. Still managed to get through all the planned activities, and we finished up 6th period a little early to get them ready for going home, since their homeroom teacher has a cold and we don’t want her to overexert herself. Had a meeting with 2-3’s homeroom teacher to reflect on today’s lesson and make final changes for Friday’s lesson. Got off work on time at 16:00 since I forgot I had to go to the bank, so I didn’t bring out the documents with me. Drove home to get them and then went to the bank to pay bills. Then I drove out to Takasaki Station to meet my mum for dinner, and then we went to see the illumination at Ashikaga Flower Park! We had dinner at a really nice Thai place I’d been wanting to try for a while (had been really craving tom yum goong!) and it was delicious and at such good prices! Had to drive for a bit to Ashikaga because of traffic so the trip took longer than planned (1 hour and 40 minutes ish drive), but the illumination is always worth the drive! They had some new sections so that was nice to see, since I’d been there once before. There were so many couples walking around with the light-up candies, it was so cute. Took lots of photos before the cold started getting to us, then we drove all the way back home. Fueled up on the way back because there was one place that was at ¥124 per liter, while back in Takasaki everywhere was at least ¥141 per liter!!!