My Last Day at Ohara

Today was my last day to teach at Ohara Elementary school, for this school year. The school year in Japan is April to March, odd I know but I dont mind the break that is approaching that is for sure! Well once again I am going to brag about how great these kids are. Today we played "Harry Potter Tag" all day for english class. What is 'Harry Potter Tag" you may ask? Well essentially it goes like this...

The target language is verbs and the sentence is "What are you doing?" and "I'm _____ing" (dancing, singing, eating, etc.). So I picked three kids to be "it" or "Voldemort" (the bad guy in Harry Potter, keep up folks!) and they in turn must try to tag everyone (a.k.a Harry Potter). When they do tag someone they shout an instruction at them (e.g. "DANCE!") and they must perform that specific action until one of the other Harry Potters comes along and saves them by asking "What are you doing?" and they answer "I'm dancing!" and are now free to go forth and rejoin the game. It was really fun to play with them because the kids really got into it. But boy, oh, boy are those kids fast! I was dying! But after my favorite class asked me to eat lunch with them (like I do every time I am there) and all in all it was a very good day! Each class gave me a good bye/thank you card (I will upload pictures tomorrow if I have time) which was very nice.

Anyways I will definitely miss the energy from those kids, until next year of course, but tomorrow I return to the large schools which sadly have their far share of cheeky little monsters. Nonetheless I love my job and am enjoying everyday!

P.S. Some of these pictures posted were taken by the kids, they loved the camera!

Dreamgirls

I finally got to see a couple American movies for the first time in japan (aside from the ones I watch on my computer of course)! Last week I saw the Pursuit of Happyness and yesterday I saw Dreamgirls. Both great movies but I have to say I was very impressed with Dreamgirls and all the performances of the actors! And wow Beyonce looked hot! She is my new inspiration to get into shape! Cayenne pepper and maple syrup drink diet...ok! Just kidding....

I love Ohara Junior High

Though I teach at 6 different schools and enjoy them all (and I am proud to say that I am a rare case as not everyone enjoys all their schools!), however my schools in Ohara (the mountains of Kyoto) hold a very special place in my heart. The elementary and junior high schools are very, VERY small. My elementary school has maybe 60 students total from grades 1-6. And my junior high has 25 students TOTAL! But I love this because I get to know each student and also I get the opportunity to do more fun things in the english lessons because I can go through things much faster. Anyway, that is besides the point of this post, the whole reason I am here proclaiming my love for these schools is because last week they gave me an end of the year, thank you party. My rotation is almost over at this school (only 2 more days at the elementary school!) and I will not be returning for a couple months, so, for that reason we had a takoyaki (octopus fried ball goodness! sounds gross but its really yummy!) party! My junior high teachers brought in this huge iron takoyaki maker and then we all make takoyaki for everyone in the school! In addition my jr. high 3rd years(all 8 of them) made me various pastas and strawberry tarts! And at the end of the lunch period my teacher announced over the loud speaker, "Traci sensei has to catch the 1:20 bus to go to a meeting so everyone please meet out on the field so that we can take a school picture with her!". All in all I was so overwhelmed by this extravagant display of kindness I almost started to cry when I was thanking my principal for such a wonderful visit. The students and teachers at these schools are just such wonderful people I only wish that these pictures actually did them any justice.

Welcome to Japan

Just a few oldies from the summer time when I first arrived to this wonderful country....
(scenes from our first arrival in Tokyo, trips to Fushimi Inari (all the tori gates), Nara, Osaka Ginkakuji (silver pavilion) during the fall, and Arashiyama Boat Festival)

Miya Jima Floating Tori Gate

Day 2 of my Hiroshima trip....
On Monday Phil and I met up with my friend Jen Miyoshi who is also working as an assistant language teacher in the Hiroshima prefecture. It was so great to see her because I havent seen her since Thanksgiving, and it is always nice to reunite with my fellow Angelenos. We went to probably one of the most recognized sights in Japan, the Floating Tori gate of Miya Jima Island. This famous sight was only made more beautiful by the nice weather we were lucky enough to receive! It was such a relaxing day of sight seeing, it was a shame to have to think about going back to work the following day. Also on Miya Jima island we came across another one of Miya Jima's claim to fame, the largest "shamoji" (rice paddle). Apparently Hiroshima was the first to invent the rice paddle, which I find hard to believe as the staple food of Japan has been rice since who knows when. Kind of hard to take credit for the invention of the rice paddle I would believe but I won't put it past them for trying. And of course to wrap the day up Jen and I had to take a peak in the "oh-so-KAWAII" Hello Kitty shop, our main reason of coming to Japan! just kidding....