A day and night with the delegates

So in the morning, I had to get up and go meet up with them at City Hall. It turns out that I didn’t need to dress up all formal or anything since I’m just a volunteer and not part of the delegation. It was ok since I’m used to wearing a suit anyways. But it’s better to look more professional anyways. It’s standard Japanese dress code anyways. We met up with the delegation after they had met with the Mayor of Yokohama. From that point, we took them to a Junior high school called Fujimi junior high school. We spent quite a bit of time there too. We arrived there around 10am and had a little orientation session about YOKE and what it stood for and what it does. Then we had a little time to go around the classrooms and see them in progress as the students are being taught in a variety of different subjects.

The English conversation room was very interesting to me because they were talking about games and just talking in English. They didn’t have a native English teacher, but the teacher that was teaching was just repeating himself over and over again. The students understood and responded. I thought that was interesting since I never usually repeat as much as he does. So that was interesting for me to think about repeating more to get them used to the language and the meaning.

We then went outside and watched some of the students play on the track and field. We went into the gym where they had a few other events going on. They were many things to do at the school in terms of physical sports. I think that it was pretty interesting to see and they had gymnastics. It was a co-ed public school, which is a side of Japan that I haven’t seen since the other public school I went to was at the High School level. They generally were interested in talking with the native English speakers and they weren’t too shy about their English. They were struggling with it, but I applauded that they were trying. Our group got stuck without a translator, which was weird, but some of the delegates spoke Japanese and I was doing my best to translate too. So our group was ok.

After another briefing session, we had lunch with the students. Our table had a few girls from China that were studying at the school and had only been there or actually in Japan for a few months. My Chinese, as I’m ashamed to say wasn’t up to par to be able to create conversation with them. So our table was incredibly quiet. A stranger walked into the room and I’d have to say that she is one of the best looking Japanese females I’ve encountered in Japan. Well, she’s my type. I think that all the guys couldn’t resist but to talk to her. I am usually good with that, but for some reason, I was compelled to talk to her and introduce myself. I didn’t make a move on her or anything, but I really wanted to. It was something that was uncharacteristic of me, but I don’t regret it.

From that point, we split into two groups A and B. I was in the B group which went to a community center that offers outside school studies or a facility for students of foreign countries to come and study and get help with other things. The center was interesting since they don’t advertise or anything, but they have a solid group of kids come to study and get help there. It’s interesting how it works and how it survives, but it’s something that is necessary for the students to get the help for school. Some of the students from the school we visited today attend this center to get help as do other schools in the area. The area of Yokohama is famous for having a lot of foreign residents residing there. We spent a few hours here and I was in charge of taking photos and listening and doing other various things too. It was interesting to see how things work in the volunteer sector in Japan as opposed to how we do things in America.

From there, we jumped into taxis and drove to Chinatown with the delegates. We were going to let them have some free time in Chinatown to look at gifts and just experience the area. Our group was too big to go together, so we split up into a few groups and went around. We got some good pictures and bought some stuff there. It was nice and interesting. I ran into a few of the other group members around Chinatown.

Around 6pm, I left early to set up the room and area for the welcoming dinner party at the restaurant we tried the other day. I really enjoyed the dinner party. A lot of the people come out of the woodworks to make it to the party. I haven’t seen some of them in a long long time, so it was nice to see them there. I was really enjoying the trip and hoping that I’d have more time for them to show them around and be with them more, but unfortunately I probably wouldn’t be able to. My Japanese improved a lot during this trip and I was able to talk to most everyone in Japanese, which to my surprise, was awesome. Everyone was taken off guard by it. It was a great way to end things and the party.

The party finished a few hours later and the delegates wanted to return to the hotel. I was part of the last group to go to the hotel after we parted with some of the volunteers. At the hotel, we waited around and decided to take the delegates back out again. We went back to the Landmark Tower again but just checking everything out on the outside and not so much looking for something to eat or anything. They already had a lot of the Christmas decorations up, so we took a group photo at the big Christmas tree in Queen’s Square. Then after that, we decided that it was a good time to go home. After all, I did have work the next day. I didn’t want to end up being all tired for a 5 classes Friday, but I still ended up being tired. I didn’t get to sleep until late since I couldn’t go to sleep.