End of the year party

I realized that I only have 3 classes today. I forgot that I don't teach seniors anymore, at least not until next month where I'll be teaching a lot of classes for seniors.

I had two 8th grade classes with a 7th grade class sandwiched in between. The first class was The Sound of Music displayed in the gym. Actually we were in the gym all day. All of them were great. They only had minor problems, but they were all fixed in the second round of performing. It was great. The 7th graders also improved greatly too. It was nice to see that none of them were goofing off anymore too. It went pretty smoothly too. The Blue Bird with the props was interesting. At least it makes sense now.

After my classes I still had to stick around for the end of the year party. That wasn't going to be around 5pm tonight. So I had a few hours to kill before that. So then I started working on a new plan for the 10th graders. I made a pretty decent plan, but I know things need to be changed in order to make it work. And I need to talk to the top people in the grade in charge of the curriculum to see what they think so. Then at 5pm, we took off to the Imperial Hotel, http://www.imperialhotel.co.jp/cgi-bin/imperial_hp/index_e.cgi It's a very nice hotel. It was a nice location to have our end of the year party.

There were actually 2 different parties. The first one was mainly for dinner. A nice buffet style meal, with steak, ribs, and a whole bunch of things. But I didn't eat much since I was going to have to perform later. I was called upon to play a game first. The game was picking up beans with chopsticks from one bowl to another. It was really quite sad. There was 4 people competiting, 2 Japanese teachers, and 2 Americans. I ranked only 3rd, but the other American won, which puts us all to shame because we are all Asians and have grown up eating with chopsticks. The other American was the person before me teaching English Conversation. His Japanese is almost perfect though, which puts pressure on me to learn more and learn faster.
After a few more games, the new teachers had to do a performance. The Japanese history teachers had to sing a song in English. It was Mariah Carey's version of All I want for Christmas. They didn't get many words out, which was bad, but made me feel better because I was going to go next and I was pretty much on my own. I was going to sing a very famous Japanese song called Sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana by Smap. They had the words to follow along while I only had the karoke music. Fortunately I recruited some backup dancers to help me with the lyrics. But I was able to get out most of the words and even did part of the dance. As nerve-racking as it was, it's over. I'm glad I did it and know that each of them knows exactly how it feels to do something in another language, without being profiencient at it.

Afterwards, I wanted to get some more food. But didn't get a chance to. We did a few more activities and then played BINGO. I won an incredible prize. I got very valuable cups engraved with the mark of Keio University. That university is ranked the second highest in Japan and VERY reputable. It's an equivolent of Harvard or Yale in the U.S. here in Japan. The symbol is two pens that shape and "X" shape. The saying "The pen is mightier than the sword" is the philosophy behind the symbol and is located at the Keio Medical facility in Tokyo. The best thing about it is that I've got two of them. Such a nice gift. I love working at Yakumo Academy.
Then after that we moved upstairs for the second party. It was more for drinks and casual socializing, but it was more difficult because I was sitting with the headmaster of the school. I was fortunate that most of the people at my table were also able to speak English. I was accompanied by a few English teachers, and one of the people who held my position a few years ago. It was interesting. I think I understood more Japanese then than I ever did before. I feel my Japanese is finally improving and that I need to make more an effort to learn than I am right at the moment.

I made an agreement with one of the English teachers that I would ask her more help on Japanese, and she'd ask more about English. I have motivated her to study English more since she sees me study Japanese during work hours. That's good, at least someone is being influenced by me. The second party was more interesting, but less fun. I mean it was a more intimate atmosphere. It seemed very weird because no one had taken our orders for food but all the teachers at the other tables were already eating, which was weird because you'd think the boss would be the first one to order and get some food. But we were last. They had ordered Escargo, and some cheeses with crackers for us. Which really wouldn't go well with the nothing that I had at the first party. I actually ate ESCARGO for the first time in my life. Luke, the native English speaker, told me the truth. Snails don't taste like much because of the garlic that is covered all over it. It was interesting, it wasn't bad, and it's typical French cuisine, and I'm glad I'm doing somethings for the first time. That's something I always want to be doing; things for the first time.

The party wasn't over until 10pm and I hitched a ride back with Mr. Kyaya. I feel bad that I'm bumming rides off on him, but I'm always riding with the same people. This time there was another teacher with us too. So it was a full car. It was nice to have an English teacher with us to help us communicate. And it's nice to sit next to a group of good looking females. You could never complain about that. But communication is a bit of a problem, so I've got to work at that for a bit. I didn't get home till around 12:30 am. Which isn't good since I teach 5 lessons on Tuesday. To be honest with you, I couldn't sleep until around 4am and my alarm was set for 6:30am.

As you could probably see, I didn't get much sleep.

Song of the Moment - SMAP - Sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana