The meat of the trip

In the morning, we had to get up really early because there was supposed to be a morning assembly, but it was cancelled because of rain. So they just went straight to cleaning up the facilities and getting ready for the days’ events. They needed to get all of their gear since they wouldn’t be allowed to go back and forth to their dorms. In the morning after breakfast they had manner lessons. They had someone come from JAL and teach them about etiquettes. It was good for them because they had a professional come and teach them about something that I think a majority of other schools won’t learn. It was something that I didn’t experience last time since I was climbing Mt. Fuji last year. So it was good for me to listen and learn too. It was new to me too and it was something that I thought was important for the students to learn. I’m glad that I had the chance to experience it.

The weather today was also bad and it was raining throughout the majority of the day. The weather forecast was really off when I checked it before we went there. It had said that today would be sunny and warm, but it was raining and cold. So everyone pretty much chilled out in their rooms in their dorms, while the teachers got things ready for the backup plans for the day. Time seemed to fly pretty quickly because before I knew it, it was already lunch time. I think that the timing between meals is very short and since I was on vacation the week before this trip, I hadn’t been eating that much, which meant that I couldn’t eat as much as everyone could or needed to.

The next thing after lunch was to prepare for the candle ceremony tonight. We needed to get all the students ready for the ceremony and for their trip to the United States. So they did a bunch of drills and things to get them ready for a major trip like that. They learned how to make lines and to count members in a hurry because I assume their schedule will be very busy and they will need to make sure that everyone is on the bus and accounted for. They did a bunch of other things in the gym too and one of the teachers made an interesting mistake that was funny, but embarrassing at the same time. She told the students to look forward and bow, but she was the main teacher and teaching, which is unusual for her to say. Usually someone (not on the stage) would say that, but she did herself, which was weird. We also did some fun games and had the students participate in that before we passed out some drinks for them to relax before they practiced their songs for the ceremony and their performances.

From around 2pm, we started working on getting dinner ready. We would have about 4 hours to get started on this. Now you might think, why would you need 4 hours to prepare dinner, especially if it is curry rice. Well, we would have to chop wood and build a fire and prepare the vegetables and meat to be cooked and cook it and then eat and clean. That takes up about 4 hours and for those who couldn’t cook it, they wouldn’t have dinner for the evening. So it was sort of a trial to see if they could do it. Of course all the students would be able to do it since no one wanted to starve and the teachers would all have to help. The male teachers would help with the chopping of the wood and starting up the fire. The female teachers would help with the preparations and clean ups and the students themselves would have to cook. That was pretty easy to be honest with you.

The wood chopping was easier this year because I had some experience, but I cut myself pretty badly with the wood chopping. It was because of a stupid mistake and not really because I was going for a chop and my arm got in the way. I was removing some wood pieces while still holding the ax and it cut me, which is pretty silly. It was a pretty deep cut, but I was surprised that I didn’t feel it. Like it didn’t hurt at all and it was only a few millimeters away from my veins, so I was really lucky that it wasn’t worse. I was much more careful after that, but everything went pretty smoothly. The teacher’s dinner was finished first and was eaten first, which really motivated the students work a bit harder to get theirs cooked and eaten. I went around and took a lot of pictures of them cooking and eating. I wanted to get a good amount since it would be my last Gotemba trip and I have taught these girls somewhat the longest. Something they don’t know is that I will probably meet them when they go to America.

We also had a candle light ceremony in the evening after the hard laboring work making the curry rice. I had to help set up and move the huge ass stage around to the center of the room for the ceremony. That was a bit tiring and stressful since all my muscles were already getting sore. The ceremony was more relaxed than it was last year. The headmaster was not in attendance this year. I got to be more involved with the students this year though. I sang two songs in Japanese and played a game with another teacher. It was a fun event and I think the students appreciated it. They did their performances and dances and played their games. I like to see the students really working with their classmates, it’s really rewarding for a teacher to see that. The event went on for a few hours and then we had to clean up, which was a bit easier since we had more students helping. But it ran over time and we needed to get the students to bathe and ready for bed.

It was so over time that the male teachers weren’t able to get into the shower room before it closed. We had the nightly teachers meeting where we had more snacks and talked about the plan for tomorrow and getting ready for clean up and dressing and leaving Gotemba. So after the meeting, we had to go to the log house to shower, which was the place that the female teachers were staying. It was nice and you’d have more privacy there.

We didn’t get to bed till really late since some of the students started to get a fever and become sick because of the heater. In the night, I decided to play a trick on the new teacher, but one of the teachers laughed before I did it and sort of ruined the surprise. But it was still fun. We all laughed about it and it was pretty silly. We didn’t get to bed till around 1am and needed to get up at 5am.