Adventures in Japan

Notes

So Carla has been training at her new job, so she hasn't had a lot of time for updating this here site. And I've been busy myself. I don't know if any of you out there can relate with or comprehend what I'm about to say: kids are exhausting. I'm sure I'm talking to myself here, for there is no one reading this who could know but: teaching kids is hard work. Just trust me on this one.

I come home from work everyday and want to just go to bed. Usually, that's just what I do. But I guess we shouldn't neglect this here blog.

So here are some random observations.

Japanese kids are cute. I mean really, really, really cute. Except for when they've got the snot problems. But man, they is cute.

Japanese kids that act like zombies are scary.

Zombies are scary.

We usually have a crafts portion of each class. The kids get to make eggs or calendars or whatever. Mainly, they make a mess! (Ba dum ching! Try the veal, I'll be here all week) Whilst the wee ones do their thang, kids songs are quietly played in the background. Sometimes the students sing along as they concentrate on staying inside the lines. When this happens, it is the cutest thing EVAR!!!

I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but a lot of my students aren't even five yet. A good chunk of them are only two. They start 'em young over here. The sad thing is, their English is better than my Japanese. Jerks. Not only do they start them young, but they drive them hard. Some of the kids who are in grade school fall asleep during our classes because they just simply can't stay awake. They've got school for a good chunk of their day, plus all kinds of clubs, plus learning English.

Kids here are pushed to learn and excel. Then they reach college and just kick back. That's kinda the way it works here. Which makes my college teaching job pretty easy. In a way. I'm a pretty laid back, friendly guy. Which is what the students want. So yay me. But a lot of the students are not so good with the English. Which means I have to do most of the talking. These are ninety minute classes. Couple that with the fact that I have to be super happy all the time and do a million and one voices at my kid teaching job and my voice is showing signs of both wear and tear.

In our own special way, we miss Regina. Regina is special, in it's own special kind of way. But man, am I going to miss the luxuries of living in a big city. Strike that. Living in a metropolis. There's always something going on. For example, this weekend we took in the Escher exhibit. I like seeing the original artwork. I had no idea so much of his stuff was done with wood block. Gave me a new appreciation for the man. As did a lot of his earlier, less trippy stuff. Escher was quite the dab hand at portraiture. His landscapes were interesting. The first few were realistic, but then you could see him start to focus on the geometry of the landscapes. I think my favourite pieces of his were his self portraits. Himself reflected in spheres. His famous works were neat to see up close and personal, but I've never really liked his human figures in those paintings.

We walked from the Escher exhibit to the Working Holiday party. We barely had a chance to mingle when we were grabbed and thrown into a room full of Japanese wanting to go to Canada. As we talked about where to go and where not to go, I could feel my voice start to go. This is getting to be annoying.

Also annoying is the fact that I forget tonnes of other stuff that I wanted to mention. Umm... happy birthday Trev... Happy nuptuals Gayle and Cory.

Oh! I remembered something! I was sitting on a park bench. Playing my DS. A little Japanese boy rode by on his bike, saw my DS and swung back around. He parked his bike and came and sat next to me. He watched me play for a while and then just kinda started playing. I teach about 130 kids. I don't wear my glasses during lessons because if I did they would have been broken about 80 times by now. So I don't know if this kid is one of my students or not. It turns out not. Just some random kid. Name of Akira.