The bus stopped at the bottom of a steep, winding hill so we "hiked" our way up to the school where the principal was waiting for us at the front entrance. We put our shoes in cubbies and put on slippers to wear inside. The school building reminded me of the architecture and quality of a Stateside public school from the early 1980's. We filed into the gym where the entire student body was sitting on the floor waiting patiently for us to arrive. They started clapping as our students were guided to the front of the gym to sit down facing them.
Despite the cold, I had a good time talking to some Japanese women who asked me if I was a teacher and about my overall experience in Sasebo. Their English was very good. I tried to speak as much Japanese as I could, but I still have a lot of vocabulary gaps. One woman was nice enough to explain the verb "to have" in Japanese for me. Another woman asked me about my travel experiences and told me that she had visited 39 countries! She also wanted me to guess her age after she had asked me mine. I guessed 56, but she said she is 71!! The Japanese age so well.
It never ceases to amaze me the level of organization the Japanese have. Even the students sit in exactly the same position (arms wrapped around knees), where our kids are usually in a mixture of cross legged position, legs to the side, or haphazard slump.
There were a few speeches made by the principal and leaders of the local Rotary club. The English portions they prepared were very similar. Common sentences were "Welcome to Uki Elementary. Let's enjoy this time together. Let's learn about our cultures." There were also two Japanese students who spoke to the Darby kids (that's us) in English, and one of the Darby students spoke to the Japanese students in their language. After the speeches, most of the older students went back to class while the remaining Japanese 4th and 5th graders stayed to do activities with the Darby kids.
Each Darby student was paired with a Japanese student and then paired with another pair to make groups of four. They introduced themselves as best they could. They were all wearing name tags, so that helped. Will's partner was a boy named Daito (dye-toh). He was super cute and very polite. He pulled out his English workbook a couple of times to figure out how to say something to Will. Their first activity was to play Rock-Paper-Scissors. They quickly discovered that they had different ways of playing the game. The winners of each game would stand during a round of applause and then play another round. After three rounds, the teacher in charge taught the Darby kids an extra part to the game. The winner of the game is supposed to chant (achi-mun-deh-oh!) and then mime a swipe across their opponent's throat with their finger on the last syllable. The opponent is supposed to guess which way the finger will swipe and then turn his head in the opposite direction to be the ultimate winner. I have no idea what the chant means or if I even understood it correctly, but it was funny to see it in action.
The next activity was a relay race across the gym. Will's team won the second round. After that each pair worked on designing a kite with markers. Most kids chose the illustrations on the packaging while others sketched out images from Pokemon and another Japanese cartoon I wasn't familiar with. Everyone was freezing the entire time in the gym, especially the parents who were sitting to the side watching the kids do their thing.
After the kite activity, we climbed three flights of stairs to a classroom where we ate our lunch. I packed lunch for Will and myself since I wasn't sure if we would like the school lunch. The Japanese are responsible for carrying up the crates of milk and serving themselves their meal. No one eats until everyone is served. Their meal consisted of a potato vegetable soup, fried fish cake, some kind of pickled salad, and bread. Surprisingly, Will was interested in trying it, but I told him he had his own food to eat. After we ate our lunch, one of the teachers offered us one of the extra Japanese meals they had on hand, so Will lucked out and got his wish. We both thought the soup was really good. The other stuff...not so much.
By the time lunch was over we were all ready to get back on the warm bus. Right before we left the classroom Will and his friend noticed the English alphabet posted on the wall and started singing the "ABC" song. When they got to the "Now I know my ABC's" part, they sang "blah, blah, blah" instead, and the Japanese woman standing next to me overheard it and laughed. She asked me if they were doing that as a joke. I said yes and that they were being silly. She said she would tell her own students about it in their English class and teach them the "blah, blah" part.
The bus ride home was much shorter and most of us were thawed out by the time we reached the school. I'm glad Will had the chance to visit a Japanese school. He was talking about the potato soup the rest of the day. :)
