Drivers License Change Prep

Woke up at 7:10am, rice for breakfast, then set off for school. Had a ton of spare time since I didn't have my usual 2nd grade classes because of the combined lesson this afternoon. So I printed off some worksheets for the new English board, printed some documents for my drivers license conversion (so much paper…), made wordfinds and crosswords for the new English board, prepped for tomorrow’s 1st grade lesson, and photocopied worksheets for Monday’s 3rd grade lesson. Lunch with 6-1 today again was fun, the kids were messing around with each other (swapping each others’ pencil cases, milk cartons, chairs, etc.) so it was really nice to just see them being kids and having fun. One of the kids had the 2nd volume of the日本人が知らない日本語 book, so we were looking through that too. Cleaning time was pretty smooth today, with just a little bit of hyperness thrown in at the end.

Today was the 5th graders and 2nd graders combined special English lesson. We still had one normal lesson with 5-1 in period 5 first, where we first did a final check of everyone’s speech in class, and then moved to the gym for a final rehearsal. The 2nd graders came super on time and even a bit early, just as I was explaining Simon Says to 5-1, so I just used 2-3 for a demonstration of the game since they know it so well! It was so funny – during the normal greetings, 2-3 just totally dominated everyone with their loud and clear answers. We started on the presenting and the 5th graders weren’t toooo bad, but a lot of them were definitely quieter than they were in rehearsals – guess they got shy! At least we had our class clowns yelling out their lines to make up for it. As the lesson got further on, the 2nd graders scooched closer and closer to the 5th graders until they were right in front, and I thought that was very cute, and it was so nice to see them interacting like they did. We finished off with playing a massive game of Simon Says, and it was so fun tricking the kids into doing the wrong action, they’re so innocent. When they did the wrong action they wouldn't realize it for a few seconds until all the kids around them would be like “AH!” and then the person himself would be like “AH!” haha.

Got off work at 16:00 to drive to the JAF (Japan Automobile Federation) office in Maebashi to get my drivers license translated, in order to get the Japanese drivers license. There’s so much paperwork involved in getting the Japanese license, and you have to have copies of so many different things. I got my translation practically straight away, and only had to wait like 30 minutes, so that was great. After that I drove home, had dinner, and checked with other ALT friends what the process is actually like for changing the drivers license. There is some information online about it, written by previous ALTs, but it’s a bit outdated – for example on the site they say you just go to the office at 13:00 and line up for it, but you actually have to call and make an interview! Plus the documents list online didn’t include the residence certificate, so I’ll have to go and get that from the City Hall sometime.