Second day at Hakone – 7th grade seminar

Everyone woke up at 6:30amish and other a bit earlier to get ready for breakfast. They had morning stretch at 7am and then came back to get breakfast at 7:30am. Then we had to do some cleaning. I had to help clean the bathroom, which is a big room with showers and a huge bath. The breakfast was simple; it was tonkatsu with salad and juice and miso soup.

Then we did a practice session for the students to learn their parts and the whole story of their plays which they have to perform next semester. This went on for 3 hours and I had to teach both classes. The first class which is Kiku, was surprisingly bad since they are at a high level in Math and Japanese and actually pretty high in English too. So during this time, I was teaching them now to read. They were doing a good job while we were there, but I’m not sure that they will continue to go with it and to learn how to read words outside of this training session. I was being recorded on video, so I was a bit worried since I was straying away from the purpose of me being there, but still I think it was good. It was just a basic lesson since it was only 30 minutes of teaching that we had to get them ready for their plays.

Ume class was surprisingly good since they could read all on their own and I didn’t have to help them much and since they are a no-reaction class. They are always so quiet and never give any response to any teacher. Normally everyone would think they don’t get it, but they do. This was one of things that surprised me most about this class that they are generally quiet but a bright group of girls. They were quite the opposite and I really didn’t have to go over too much. But I learned how they learned how to read. They just memorized the order of the words with something they had previously learned, so it wasn’t that they knew how to read per se, but they knew the words and the order and how to pronounce them. So what I did was broke up the vocabulary and did it individually so that they would be able to look at the word at any time and still be able to read it. I made them read things out of order so at least they would have a grasp of what they were saying as opposed just saying something that has no meaning to them, just to make me happy. Although I do appreciate them doing it, it does need to go much further for me to be happy.

Then we had lunch, but this was already prepared by the teachers that weren’t doing anything since the English teachers were teaching the students their lines for the school play. During the second group that I was with, I had run out of things to do with the students. They had finished their readings so fast compared to the other class that I just had to start playing games with them before they would get all bored. I think that was a good thing and since I had a good group to work with, they didn’t have any troubles. The lunch was something pretty simple. It was just a salad prepared and rice balls called onigiri. There were a few other things like a soup, but it was all simply prepared.

We then had recreation hour after that. They did many events that would be a prelude to the sports festival in the beginning of October. Since they are in the 7th grade, I don’t think they know how it goes at my school. It’s very popular to have a sports festival during the autumn season in Japan and all schools have one. Last year I had the chance to witness it. It’s quite a long ordeal that goes from 10am to 4pm so it’s a pretty big deal. But this time we only had an hour to do things that would get the girls moving and competing against each other by class. But within the class they would be broken up into smaller groups. They did a series of events ranging from jump roping, to four-legged race, and many many relays. It was very interesting how they played the games. It was very enjoyable to watch and to even participate a little. There was one event where the teachers would have to play paper, rocks, and scissors in order to go back to the start line and tag the next person to come. They had balloon popping and everything. It was a very fun hour for them and for me. We wanted them to build up an appetite because dinner would soon follow. I think that dinner tonight would be very early starting at 4pm. It felt like we just had lunch so I wasn’t very hungry.

The catering service came a bit early so we went to the other house, the one I’m staying at and had a garden party. The dinner itself was pretty impressive. It was catered by a hotel in the neighboring area. I think they did a good job, I mean it wasn’t the best food that I’ve ever had, but it was pretty good for buffet style food. I guess you could describe it as one of Italian food with a Japanese touch. They had a lot interesting combinations that I wouldn’t really consider dinner as much as I would just snacks. But there was a lot which made it enough for me.

The houses are named one and two. I usually stay at house number two, which is the main house that people use for when everyone gets together. The house number one is the one that Yakumo built and number two is the one Yakumo bought from another owner. The first house is symmetrical with both wings being a mirror of the other side.

After the students finished dinner we did fireworks. It’s not the one you would see at a festival, but something that EVERY Japanese person involves themselves with in summer time. It’s very addicting and I kind of wished that we could do it in America, but then again, I also appreciate the fact that it’s illegal in America. I mean, the ones we play with in America have a bigger bang and are generally dangerous compared to the ones you can get in Japan. We had a lot and some were bigger than the ones I’ve used in the past. So that was incredibly fun for me. I’m such a pyromaniac… it’s a good thing that the school and the students don’t know that. It was pretty fun though and I really enjoyed it.

Then we studied again. I did the Japanese handout for the students tonight and was surprised that I was able to do it. There was one part that was extremely difficult, but the Japanese teacher told me that it’s difficult for high school students. So I’m happy to say that my Japanese is higher than 7th grade level. I really thought that I was at elementary school level, but it seems that I’m higher. I’m very happy and proud to say that. I haven’t really put any effort into studying Japanese since I’ve been in Japan, which is a very big disappointment, but I’m still picking things up. That’s the good part about studying language in the country where you’re studying. You learn through osmosis. I spent the rest of the night doing this paper though, even longer than the students since they also had math to work on. I mean we started around 7pm and I didn’t finish till around 11pm because I was very addicted and wanted to figure it out. There was one that was incredibly hard and I just gave up after a little bit because I was just too tired to finish.