Ping Pong!

So this weekend was the Chuutairen again (apparently called the Shinjinsen for fall) and it was super tiring but exciting.

Part of the reason it was super tiring is that I was stupid and ended up staying up late both Friday and Saturday night (until, respectively, 2am and 1am) so I felt like I zombie when I got up around 5:30am to prepare lunch and get to the school by 6:45am.

At any rate, it was exciting because this time around two of our students got certificates! An ichinensei girl got 5th (along with three others) and a ninensei boy got 9th (again, along with three others). The Japanese ranking system seems strange to me since rather than competing for a definite ranking, they award multiple prizes/certificates after 1st and 2nd. For example, the two semi-final losers were both awarded 3rd place instead of having to compete for it. Similarly, the four quarter-final losers all got 5th place, and the four losers from the round before that were all awarded 9th place.

But anyway, despite my confusion over the ranking thing, I was really happy that the ninensei boy, Maiya, got 9th! He's my favourite student from that grade, and he's also the one who had a really tough loss during the summer Chuutairen. It was probably a little bad of me, but I made it a point to follow his games. Even though I was on the other side of the gym cheering for another student at the time, as soon as his game was announced, I left and went to get a better view of Maiya's game. (The student I had been cheering for was well on his way to winning, but still...)

This particular game (his second) was particularly stressful to watch because it was eerily similar to his last heart-breaking match. His opponent was, like last time, from the strongest school, Tomari (although it was a different guy this time). And, once again, he won his first two sets without too much difficulty and lost by a fairly small margin in the third. Even though I could see from his play that he had gotten a lot stronger (he made some really spectacular plays throughout the first three sets), given his past experience, I thought that this game would be the biggest test of his character growth. Would he be able to brush off memories of the past and regain his composure to win?

He also lost the fourth match (this time, though, by a fairly small margin) and I got really nervous by this point, thinking it was going to be a near-total replay of that unfortunate game (where he lost his composure and the match), but he managed to keep his cool to win (albeit by a fairly small margin) the fifth and final set for the match. As one of the Kirita students who was cheering with me described it, it was a "giri giri win" (meaning he just barely made it). I can't be sure, but his expression of happiness and relief after winning the match made me think that he also felt he had overcome his disappointment from the last Chuutairen.

Although his third opponent was also from a strong team, he was able to win fairly convincingly (with only a few bad moments in the final set) in three straight sets.

His fourth match determined whether he would be able to go to the quarter-finals or not. Unfortunately, he lost in a hard fought match, but he definitively showed his character growth when he came back up to the gallery after the loss.

He had looked a little upset when he lost (another ninensei boy--one of his better friends--commented that he was probably crying), but when he came back up he was very composed. I told him "otsukaresama" (an acknowledgment of someone's hard work/efforts) and, a little later, "yoku ganbarimashita" (you worked really hard). To the latter, he gave me a bit of a puzzled look and said something along the lines of (roughly translated): "Not yet. I can't (or won't) cry because I still have a match." In my confusion over the ranking system, I had thought that he had either already earned a certificate or was completely out of contention for one. It turned out, though, that, like last time, he still had another match and if he won that, he would get a certificate for placing in the "top ten."

When I realized that he was in the same situation as last time and how focused on the next game and calm he was, I felt this huge burst of pride/satisfaction/happiness at seeing how much he'd grown since the summer. The fact that he went on to win that "top ten" match was really just icing on the cake. ^_^

Anyway, apart from the performance of one of my favourite students, there were a few other interesting things at the tournament. I noticed during the practice this morning that even if you knew very little about table tennis, you could tell by watching the practice which students were considered "top dogs." Since there aren't enough tables for all the students to practice on at the same time, the way practice work is that four students practice at a table at a time: the two pairs rallying make an X-pattern across the table. Four other players (two other pairs) await their turns behind the players using the table. When a pair's rally ends, the next pair steps up to the table while the original pair chases down the ball. This means that there are typically six to eight players at a table.

When I looked down at all the tables, however, I could see that there was a table with only four players practicing; it was occupied by two pairs from the top school, Tomari--they took first, second, and one of the third prizes for the guys' individual games in the summer, as well as first place in the team competitions. I saw a couple of pairs wandering around looking for tables, but rather than joining the Tomari table, they went to tables that already had eight people practicing!

Next to the Tomari guys' table, there was a table with seven girls. Four of the students were doing the normal switch off, but the other three girls were different: one girl always stayed and the other two practiced with her. Even if that girl missed the ball, the girl partnered with her would go chase after the ball (usually the person who misses retrieves) while the waiting person would step up to allow her to continue practicing. This girl, as you could guess, was the girls' first prize winner from the last event.

So yeah, even though I was really tired, thinking about the table dynamics helped to keep me awake and interested during the practice.

The last (well, chronologically the second, since all the stuff with Maiya was at the end, and the practice stuff was first) interesting thing was an incident during another of my ninensei boy's match. This particular student is quite a character. He's really tall, but he never stands or sits straight. Even when he's walking, his shoulders and slumped and he's hunched over! Apart from his posture, he also doesn't speak clearly. He speaks in a mumble and uses improper Japanese (not to mention English). For example, when calling home after an event to ask his parents to pick him up, he won't identify himself or greet them properly but instead just says "ittekoi" (a rough, dictatorial way of saying "come")! My JTE has described him (and I agree with her descriptions!) at various times as "an alien," "an injured soldier" and "an octopus." It's hard to explain, really, but he's the most unique character I've ever encountered.

Anyway, so this student, Takumichi, won his first match. I was a little surprised because his style of table tennis play is similar to his normal carriage (kind of boneless and lethargic), but it was understandable since he was against an ichinensei student. In his second match, though, he was pretty thoroughly outclassed. He lost in three straight sets by very wide margins each time. But yeah, during one of the sets, I happened to turn to watch him (another Kirita student was playing at a table in front of me, whereas Takumichi was to my right) as he made a rather desperate shot.

Apparently he assumed the shot wouldn't go in, so, for reasons unknownst to me, he turned around and started walking away from the table (even though it wasn't a set/match point!). But the thing is, the shot DID go in, and his opponent returned it! So of course Takumichi gave up the point. In fact, he only turned around when his opponent's return shot bounced off the table past him! I was so shocked that he would just walk away from the table like that, I actually YELLED "BAKA! Saigo made akiramenai, Takumichi!" (Idiot!! Until the very end, don't give up!) After I got over my surprise, though, I immediately saw the ridiculousness of the situation--not only his play, but my own behaviour in calling him "BAKA!" so loudly in public! =P

So, all in all, it was quite a memorable Chuutairen!

And, on a random, but related note, I highly recommend the Ping Pong movie! It's based on the manga (also excellent!) by Taiyo Matsumoto. It's an entertaining but...thoughtful? (don't know if that's the right word) story about friendship and the search for a hero in the competitive world of high school ping pong!

The novelty factor...

One thing that's definitely better in Japan than in Canada is Baskin Robbins (also known as "31 Ice" here). They not only have the standard ice cream, shakes and floats, but they also have crepes and fabulous looking sundaes!

But for me, the best thing is the variety they offer. Every month they have at least two or three "new" seasonal flavours. This month, for example, they added Darjeeling Tea, Ringo (apple) Sorbet, Tiramisu and Baseball Park (a nutty flavour). And of course, to keep the number of flavours constant, they also have flavours discontinued every month, so the seasonal flavours are only available for about 2-3 months.

They're also smart about their advertising for new flavours. They have pamphlets (Ice Cream Flavor Menus) showing all the flavours to be released and discontinued over a period of three months, as well as all the standard flavours. And the strategy of appealing to people's love of novelty seems to work: everytime I go by the Baskin Robbins, I always see at least one or two (if not more!) people buying ice cream--all year round!

At any rate, I know the marketing strategy works on me. It's actually a wonder that I've managed to lose weight since moving to Japan, considering that I buy ice cream from Baskin Robbins at least once or twice a month--I've even gone as often as four or five times a month!--and I almost always get one of the seasonal flavours. This may change now that I've been here for a year and I'm starting to see repeats of flavours from last year, but still, there's usually at least one flavour that's completely new to me. I've also got a collection of all the Flavor Menus that have come out since I came to Japan--with the flavours I've tasted checked off. =P

When I finally move back to Canada, I'm definitely going to miss Japanese Baskin Robbins! (But it'll probably be better for my health. ^_~)

Friends, Burgers, Assumptions & Sneakiness

Apologies in advance, since this is going to be a rather lengthy post covering many different topics. The first one, as you can probably guess from the title, is friends.

When I went to the Kirita Matsuri on Monday, I realized that one of the things I really miss from home is having friends (living in the same city) I know I can call on the spur of the moment to see if they want to hang out. I invited the ALTs in Towada and Shichinohe to come to the Kirita festival with me, but they were all either busy or not interested. (Admittedly, I did a poor job of talking up the event to entice them to come.) Apart from the Kirita teachers I get along well with, I have made some Japanese friends, but I don't feel that I know any of them well enough to call/email them the day before or day of to ask them if they want to do something with me. I guess if Yukiko wasn't in Canada doing her working holiday, I would've been comfortable inviting her, but she is, so of course I couldn't.

Anyway, even though it was a bit lonely going on my own, I still really enjoyed the Kirita Matsuri. I saw a lot of my students there--performing as well as just attending. The Shimokirita students and teachers were especially happy to see me, I felt--which was nice. I thought they (the Shimokirita students) were only doing two performances--a dance by the girls and a unicycle routine--but they actually had four! Along with the two I knew about, they also had a dance by the guys (there weren't enough ES students, so four of my junior high students--alumni of Shimokirita--also performed!) and some sort of "genki" exercise/dance routine. (See pictures from the festival in my Facebook album.)

Apart from the fun stuff, there was also a very weird moment towards the end of my time at the festival. I was standing with the JHS ninensei girls when an older man approached us. At the festival there was this thing where you paid for a small piece of gum (like from old school sports card packs) with a design etched into it. Then you had to try to carve the design out using a push pin/thumb tack. (Harder than it sounds--all of my students broke the design at some point before they finished.) So anyway, this man tried to give us money (1000 yen) to all go and do this thing. Even though my students all refused and backed away, he was really persistent and spent at least 2-5 minutes trying to convince us to take the money.

It was extremely awkward, to say the least. At the time I really wished my Japanese was better. I mean, I was the adult there (and their teacher, to boot) but because I didn't know what to say, I couldn't help them at all! Plus, the guy thought I was a student as well. ^^;; (Actually, the brother of one of my students had already asked earlier, pointing to me: "Ano hito, nan nensei desuka?" - What grade is that person in?) But yeah, my students ultimately managed to convince the guy to give up and go away.

Weirdness aside, I had a good time. I definitely want to go again next year, but hopefully I'll be able to find someone to come with. =P

After I came home, I finished making my burger shop stuff, and I've got to say, I'm pretty proud of the finished products!

To match the ichinensei textbook menu, I made chicken burgers, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, "cola" and orange juice (large or small), and shakes (vanilla or chocolate). The students had a lot of fun with it on Tuesday, so it was worth all the work. ^_^

As chaotic as the hamburger shop activity was, it was definitely one of the highlights of an otherwise very long week. Tuesday I stopped by the office after I finished at Kirita (5pm) to pick up my lesson plans. Both the Friday and Monday plans required revisions, so first I had to figure out what I wanted to do and then I had to get Tomabechi-sensei to help me compose the faxes to the schools. (I had to write them in Japanese, since they were for elementary schools.)

(Apparently I wasn't very clear in my Chitose fax since Andy had to call me this morning to get a clarification, but that's something I'll get into in a little bit.)

And this was all on top of the prep I had to do for my jishu gakushu classes!

On Tuesday I also had dance practice. Then yesterday and today I stayed late at Kirita. Lately some of the sannensei students who have a bit of difficulty with English have been staying after jishu gakushu (they no longer have club activities since they're supposed to be studying for their high school exams) to get help with their English homework. Of course it's not something I have to do, but since I especially love the sannensei, I've been staying to help them (along with Tomabechi-sensei, naturally). As a result, I've been leaving school around 6:30pm.

Yesterday I had the Wednesday eikaiwa, and then today I went to the office to prepare lesson materials for my school visit tomorrow. (More on that later.)

So yeah, I've been super busy with work.

Unfortunately, even with all the prep work I do, there are still times when I screw up. When I saw the Chitose lesson plan, a little warning bell sounded in my head since it had the topic of "school subjects" for the rokunensei (sixth graders). I knew Aaron had done a school subjects lesson for one of the higher grades at Chitose last week, but because Chitose is generally a well-prepared school, I chose to assume they were re-using the lesson for a different grade. But when I talked to Aaron tonight, it sounded like they actually did give me the same lesson for the exact same classes. ^^;;

Luckily I found out tonight so I could plan to go in a little early to sort things out with the teacher and check the materials, but still, it was really something I should have looked into as soon as I got the lesson. I mean, I KNEW Aaron had taught the topic at the school last week. I should have called him to double check the details, rather than making assumptions. (You know the saying: "To assume makes an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'.")

Oh well, I also called Andy (to see if the teacher had realized the mistake when I asked them to make game cards) and he gave me some ideas as to what I could do if it turns out that I'm right and they accidentally gave me a repeat lesson plan.

Worse comes to worse, I can always use the game as a review and then just use the lesson I'm doing with the gonensei (fifth graders) with the rokunensei. I spent enough time preparing the materials, so I might as well get as much use out of them as possible.

As I mentioned earlier, I went into the office after school today to prepare the lesson materials for the gonensei (topic: seasons). Even though the computer at the office is super slow and it takes a long time to send big files to print, I think from now on I'm going to try to do more of my lesson prepping there instead of at home.

For one thing, it will save me money on printer ink, among other supplies. It's also a lot faster to make cards when I have the use of a paper cutter rather than having to use scissors! Besides, I think it's good for the people at the office to see how much of my personal time I spend on lesson planning. I mean, the teachers at Kirita know how hard I work because they see me preparing for and teaching classes (jishu gakushu) during the day and after my regular hours. But I don't really have office days during the second term, so people at the office only see me for the fifteen or so minutes I spend at the office, once a week, picking up lesson plans and doing paperwork, etc.

Though I'm not doing all this extra work for praise but for the sake of the students (and out of professional pride), I've got to admit there are times when I really wish I received more acknowledgment of my efforts from the office. I guess it's times like now, when I'm tired and stressed, that I feel that no one really knows or appreciates all the time and energy I spend on lesson planning. And I guess it's human nature to want acknowledgment for our efforts.

So yeah, going to the office to do my prep work is my sneaky way of ensuring that the office is aware of the work I'm doing for my school visits.

Anyway, like I said, I need to go a little earlier to my school tomorrow to make sure everything's ok for the lesson, so it's time for me to go to bed!

The first thing...

Before I get into my main post, here's the link for my photos from Saturday at the Aki Matsuri: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=155728&l=72c2f&id=655150561

So I (re-) learned today that when shopping for clothing, the first thing you should always do is check/ask for the price. For some reason, I decided this weekend that I was definitely going to buy another yukata. (I suspect part of it was the desire to not be seen wearing the same yukata twice in one weekend--albeit at different festivals.) Of course yukatas are summer clothing, so most stores no longer have them on display. I actually saw yukatas still on sale at the Jusco in Shichinohe last weekend, but I didn't want to drive out there just for that, so I decided to go to the place I bought my first yukata from: a store called Tasei.

They didn't have any on display, but I asked about yukatas so they went into the store room and brought out a selection for me. The first batch they brought out were all 1000 yen, but they were also all pink. I'm not a pink person, so even though the price was tempting, when they asked how I felt about seeing some slightly more expensive ones, I responded favourably.

In the next batch they brought out, they had a really cute red one with a rabbit and moon pattern. I liked it immediately, especially since it had yellow/gold in it, so it would match the obi I already had. Then I tried it on and I liked it even more.

So, without even asking the price, I was like "I'll take this one!" Well, when I got to the register I saw the price tag and had a bit of a shock. Luckily there was a 30% discount, but even then, it was a lot more than I had budgeted for in my mind. I'm embarrased to say how much exactly it cost (although, I like it enough that I still feel it was worth it), but suffice to say it cost more than twice as much as I paid last year for the yukata, obi, himo (things to tie it with), and waist thing (so the obi doesn't get bunched up) combined. ^^;;

Definitely should've asked the price before allowing myself to think that I really liked it and wanted it!! Ah well. I'm cheap on food and I don't go out that much, so I guess it's OK to splurge on something like this every once in a while.

Next summer, though, I'm definitely going to start looking at yukatas earlier! (Assuming that I'm going to want another new one next year too...)

Anyway, other than buying a yukata (forgot to mention, I'm going to wear it tomorrow at the Kirita area festival), I also spent a lot of time today making hamburgers, cheeseburgers and chickenburgers out of newspaper and coloured paper. I also made apple pies and am planning on making "colas," orange juice and shakes. The ichinensei at Kirita are going to be doing the burger shop dialogue on Tuesday, so I figured I'd do the burger shop role play activity with them for jishu gakushu. (I'll post pictures of all the stuff tomorrow, once I've finished making everything.) I'm really looking forward to the lesson, and I hope the students will have fun with it too!

At 4pm I went to a BBQ at Nori's farm. (Nori is Andy's brother-in-law.) I was the first person to arrive--people trickled in between one and two hours after me!--so I had a lot of time to eat and eat and eat. ^^;; I probably ate more meat tonight than I would eat in one or two months (not counting school lunches, but just my own cooking or meals eaten out)!

It was very relaxed and fun, which is not how I'd usually describe drinking parties. I guess a lot of that was because it was a small gathering at someone's home, rather than a huge event in a public place. Then too, given the nature of the party and the type of people there, I didn't have to feel responsible for anyone's behaviour.

After comparing the various types of drinking parties I've attended this month, I think I'm probably going to become more of a hermit this year and stay away from the big drinking events. I'm not a very social/out-going person, so large events aren't my thing to begin with, and then too I'm starting to get tired of being the non-drinker surrounded by drunkenness. I don't mind when everyone's just happy drunk, but when people get out of control, it starts to tire/stress me out. (That darn over-developed sense of responsibility to/for others at work again!)