School Trip to Kobe

Today, I woke up at 4:30am to get ready to go to Tokyo station by 7:30am. It really doesn't take me that long to get there, but I don't want to be late and get left behind either. I always wake up earlier than I need to, just to be on the safe side. I took the Tokaido line because I thought it would be fastest, which it might be. I arrived on time, but there were a lot of teachers already there. Most of the teachers live closer to Tokyo than I do, but some don't live too far away from me. I knew this journey was going to be an interesting one.

Many students were surprised to see me go. I had decided to go with the 10th graders to go to Kobe and Universal Studios Japan instead of going to DisneySea with the 7th graders. Most of my students are in the 10th grade so I think it would encourage them to speak more English if I were there.

At first, there wasn't too much getting on. But then on the Shinkansen, a teacher that has never spoken to me, started to talk to me. And he was doing his best to speak English. I was really glad to hear it too. We started teaching each other our respective languages. He was a Japanese Language teacher. It was a really good trip to Kobe. Many great things to see too on the way. I saw the Eastern Temple in Kyoto from the train.

When we arrived at Shin-Kobe Station, all the students got ready to go to Kitano, which is a place where they have foreign homes. It's a nice little area. The group was split into 3 different groups eating lunch at 3 different locations. I went with class F and we had sukiyaki, which is thin slices of steak on a sizzling plate with some vegetables. It was pretty good and the restaurant looked fairly expensive.

After lunch, everyone was free to roam the city till around 4:30pm when we would meet to go to the hotel and then dinner after that. I went with the teachers and we went to different locations, but then 2 of the 4 teachers had to go to the meeting place early, so it was just me and another young teacher.

We just kicked it around the Kitano area looking at all the different areas that they had. We finished kinda early, but had to stay there past 4:30pm to wait for students who didn't go to the meeting point. It was an interesting time that we had together. I didn't know that she knew how to speak English since she's never said a thing to me before. Her English is pretty good for Japan's standard, although I'm sure not many other teachers know that. It started to rain a little, we had our umbrellas in our bags that were already taken to the hotel, so we just got a little wet. We went into the museums and different houses and made some observations about things. I was really surprised at the ability of the teachers to try to communicate with me, even though their English level was limited. It goes to show that they were just joking about the whole matter.

A little after 4:30pm, we went to the meeting spot and took a taxi to the harborland new otani hotel. I spent the next hour watching the U.S. Presidential Debate. President Bush did a lot better than I originally thought. I think it was good debate on both sides, but a little better on one than the other. I'd like to see what happens afterwards.

Around 6:30pm, we had to meet at the lobby of the hotel because we were going to go to dinner on a cruise ship around the port of Kobe. It was a huge ass ship. The largest I've ever been on, and it was very elegant. It was named Concerto and we had a Chinese buffet dinner. It was quite delicious and afterwards students were taking pictures and up at the top deck looking back at the city. It was nice. We arrived back at the port around 9pm and we all started walking back to the hotel.I thought it was the end of the night, but it wasn't.

For teachers, after the day, we had a little pow-wow get together. We went up to the 17th floor where there was a bar, and there was a scenic view of the entire Kobe area. Really nice and extremely high class. I had to sit next to the Big Boss, which was quite nerve racking for me. She forced me to eat a lot, even though I was really too full. It was good food and all, but I just didn't have enough room. Then my perspective of Japanese people changed.

They do eat a lot. Way more than I'm used to, and I'm American. I ordered a Smirnoff, which didn't taste like a Smirnoff so I didn't drink it, much. I just took little sips since I felt bad because I was forced to order something alcoholic. It really was interesting to be on a school trip and to be a teacher, especially for this school. Anyways, that was the night. I couldn't sleep that well either, and I'm not sure why.