Cold Reality

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27

It was 49 when I woke up. For you Celsius users, that's 9. I was not happy. It made it very difficult to get out of bed. Luckily, it warmed up some during my walk to school. I wore my wool black hat with cat ears and got a few “kawaii!”s from girls on the platform while waiting for my train.

Today was advanced directions again with Tamora. The schedule was a bit mixed around, so I never knew what was going on. The students were a better behaved than usual and seemed to understand fairly well. After one class, that I thought went particularly well, I commented as such to Tamora, so made a noncommittal response, which I didn't quite appreciate.

We played the cat and mouse game during class, which they enjoyed. I had to throw in a wall in two classes because students were just circling and the game was getting boring.

We had two hours off between my first three classes and my last class. It was after this time, 10 minutes before our next class that she came up to me and asked if I had any ideas for making the lesson more interactive in the last section. Umm.... what?! Now? Like... maybe 2 hours ago would have been a good time to discuss this...

We eventually added in a little navigation game – follow my commands on the map, and it did work, but it was rather short notice.

After school we discussed the new lesson. She asked if I had any ideas and I mentioned the lesson I'd been working on about relationships, asking about partners, and such. It's based off a lesson I had when taking Irish Language in Ireland. She listened, in a non-committal way. Then asked what I wanted to teach. I tried to patiently explain that I wanted to give them the phrases to ask about relationship statuses, as that seemed to be their favorite topic of conversation. She seemed like she didn't like it, but would go with it because I wanted to do it. She claimed there was nothing to be tested about it, which I disagree with. We then talked about my lessons at other schools and started discussing a lesson on injuries for Nishi during the last two classes. I offered to completely skip the relationships idea, but no, she said we could do it.

I've talked to Elizabeth extensively about my difficulties with this school. I love my other two a lot, but I just find working at Nishi hard. I feel like I never do well, it's hard to teach, and I just don't have the friendly relationship with teachers at Nishi that I do at Kogyo or Koko. I had hoped that as students seemed very uninterested in English that a lesson on a topic they already enjoyed might intrigue them, but it's hard to win both the teachers and the students. Elizabeth's schools, meanwhile, don't really make her run lessons by them at all. She lacks the feedback I get, but she has freedom to experiment at her lowest-level school. I envy that.

Not all of the feedback was bad, though. She reinforced that I need more interactive things, which I completely agree with. I'd actually planned some for the lesson, but didn't have time to fit them in (they got cut off by how much longer other parts took.) She also wants some sort of warm-up (I agree.) I'm bringing over the cards from Koko's recent warm-up: I like/love/enjoy/am crazy about, etc. worksheet. I am sick of how students all just say, “I like _______” and never say anything else. They love little cookie cutter phrases.

After discussing lessons we got into a long discussion about life in Japan. This part was actually very fun and, given the difficulties of the previous conversation, really, really important. I had been feeling quite negative. I mentioned how cold it was and we discussed buying me a heated table. She's apparently going to drive Brian to get one some weekend, and I'll be allowed to come along. We discussed kimono lessons and more.

I ended up leaving late, but I really, really needed that. Pinocchio is the weirdest story.

And, because I got my confirmation, I can now tell you! I'm going to the Gion Odori, the autumn Maiko dances in Kyoto! Maiko are apprentice Geiko (called “Geisha” everywhere in Japan except Kyoto.) It will have a tea ceremony (served by the Maiko!) and then a one hour dance performance It's a bit pricy, but, my god!, a night with a Maiko would be much, much more so. Frankly, I'm calling it a steal. And it should be interesting!