Lesson Plan Suggestions...?

My whimsical witnesses and creative comrades. Looking for some suggestions from the best of the best so I thought that I'd turn to you...

You probably won't be surprised, but I taught Bob Marley as a lesson this week. I did a short intro about Jamaica, Rastafarian-ism, the Cannibus symbol (it's prolific with the kids in Japan, albeit the meaning is lost in translation) and Reggae.

Then we listened to a few choice Bob Marley cuts (No Woman No Cry, Mellow Mood, Small Axe, Redemption Song), and then did a worksheet to fill in the blanks of a song... and then I told the students if they liked the music, to come see me after class and I would burn them a Bob Marley CD, as long as they bring me some cool (Japanese) music they like. Not to shabby, so far I've had 6 hits (I'll post the music reviews later... some good, some trash)!

Anyway, the teacher liked it and told me that for the rest of the year I can plan whatever I want to teach, and I don't need to follow the textbook. Hell yeah! Open license on the curriculum. Niiiiiice.

So, I wanted to see if you guys had any suggestions? Be creative. Use your Imagination. The goal is to get them excited and have fun. We're talking 13-15 year old here.

Thanks!
-shu.

Kids say the darn'dest things

In the spirit of trying to update more often, here's a quickie...

Things the kids say the most:

- Do you have a girlfriend?
- That is Mistah No-Hair (referring to a balding teacher walking by)
- Do you play sex?
- Ha-ow ah you? (In response me saying:"Hello, how are you?" A: "Ha-ow ah, you?")
- Why are American girls so tall? Do they eat a lot of Hamburgers?
- Do American girls have "Boin?" (Onomonopia for "boing" - supposedly the sound big boobs make when they bounce)
- Maikeru, sticker please. (I give you stickers in class for good performance. Now they hound me for them 24/7)
- Do you like to drink? Are you an alcoholer?
- What's your size? (as they point to my crotch)
- "Aium dis bigu (about 1/2 inch)" (is what they say, when I return the question and point at THEIR crotch).
- Do you know "HG?" (HG is a Japanese comedian that is dressed up as a leather daddy with short pants and a studded vest. He air-humps profusely. HG stands for "Hard Gay"). The question is always followed by a happliy humping student and his cheering companions.

Kids... gotta love 'em.

Engrish

There is an anti smoking camaign out right now that has these really funny anecdotes. This is a new one I saw on the train the other day.

Sex Machine Korean BBQ. What else do you need to know?

Tatsuno East Junior High School Sports Festival

Here's something that would never happen in the US - the first two weeks of classes were cancelled so that the kids could practice for this thing called Sports Festival. Sports festival is something that every school in Japan has, and is a big community event - the parents come out for the whole day and the kids reherse forver for it. It was started about 100 years ago in schools, and was adapted from military training. I gotta admit, the kids are really tough and take a beating - both during practice and the actual event. I saw so many broken arms, wrists, ankles, legs, by the time of the actual event, it totally looked liked the aftermath a big battleground.

The students made posters for the event and hung them up around the school for the parents and townspeople to check out before the event started.

This one was my favorite. Note that in Japan, the sun is red, not yellow.

The students form 6 teams - Pink, White, Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. Each team has a mix of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students and a guy and a girl captain from the 3rd year. It's a very competetive event and the student leaders and council plan all summer for it, and then the students practice the entire two weeks for it.

Cardboard Races - The first event was a cardboard relay race:

Put four in a box, two backwards, running fast as possible.

One sitting on the cardboard, two pulling.

Mucade Races - Mucade is Japanese for "Centipede." For this event, the students for teams of 8-10 and all tie their legs together, and all attempt synchronized running:
When it works, it looks really impressive and the students really haul ass.

But... if they are slightly out of synch, which often happens when the students are hauling ass at top running speed:

... you end up with a pretty bad trainwreck (the guy in front usually gets it the worst).

Next event was the Tug of War. All teams at once, with multiple ropes, so you either get some very fast finish mismatches, or...
...some really big battles with students pullin' tough.



Mounted Horse event:
This was a crazy event! It's supposed to simulate on horse hand-to-hand combat. Three kids make the horse, and the rider is on top, wearing a hat of their team's color. The object of the game is to knock off as many of the other team's hat without getting yours knocked off.

The girls all had to wear gloves to protect their nails and keep from gouging each other's eyes out.
Yusuke, my supervisor's son. His team (pink) ended up winning the entire Sports Festival.
With the boys, as soon as the whistle blows it's a totall melee. The teachers have to get into the mix and we "spot" the kids, as usually a few of them get decked so hard they fall off their horses. The girls, however, is the complete opposite - as soon as the whistle blows, the majority of them scramble to run away from each other, resulting in the few aggressive girl-horses picking off hats if they can catch the others.
I heard of one year during this event, one of the kids fell so hard that he got knocked out cold with a concussion. With as rough as this event is (as well as the Mucade Race) it's just a total lawsuit waiting to happen, you'd think, right?! Wrong. Not in Japan. As for the kid who got knocked out, his parents came to the school and made a formal APOLOGY for their kid not being tough enough to fight in the crazy hand-to-hand combat!? Talk about absurd! My guess is that since Sports Festival is viewed as such a pastime that they saw it as totally normal for their kid to be clocked so hard.

Team Spirit Routines:
The final event of the day was a team-spirit routine, where each team came up with their own performance and unveiled it to the school. There are certain rules (can't purchase anything, but you can make things - usually drums, flags, costumes, etc), and it's a big deal because this event scores the most points and so the students have spent the most time rehearsing in secret. They even have a panel of judges to score the event!



After the sports day, the teachers had a huge party called an "enkai." Man these Japanese teachers know how to party. We went to this awesome restaurant with gorgeous food and man these teachers drank like fish. During the enkai, you get these really small drinking glasses, and you're not supposed to pour your own drink - you are supposed to pour for other people while saying "otsukara sama desu," which means, "thanks for your hard work." Then you pour them a drink. This all starts of relatively tame but you end up drinking a lot really fast because of these small cups and everybody is going around thanking each other (with the intention of getting each other bombed).

Since I'm the new teacher, everybody was out to get me wasted - we had to do skits after the dinner and I was supposed to be giving an English lesson (boy what a trainwreck that turned out to be).

Man these teachers are wild! In addition to the human trampoline, the teachers had rolling somersault competition, and TONS of karaoke. Can you imagine this happening at a work party back home?

More Engrish...

I bet the line is out the door.

It tastes better than it sounds. Like chocolate covered popcorn bars.

Dude Sapporo was running a promo advertising "Chicken and Beer" and it actually had a picture of the chicken on the can!! I couldn't resist.

Elementary School

"Maikeru-sensei and the Crazy 88."

So I had my first full day of teaching on Friday, and it was SO COOL! I taught at Oyake Elementary School, which is the biggest one in my town (about 800 kids).

In the morning I taught two first year classes (5 and 6 year olds) how to play rock paper scissors in English (it's super popular here - the Japanese call it Janken and have taken it to mindblowing levels. I would not be shocked at all if Japan tried to get rock/paper/scissors nominated as an Olympic sport). Man these kids were WILD (well it didn't help that I got them all wound up either). Yes, I got koncho'd (twice) and my bits and bum groped by a gang of 5 year old chicks and dudes but I just couldn't get mad at those little fuckers. The were so damn cute.

"Hey buddy keep your hands where I can see them" (1st Grade)"

"Dis is Engrish for See-sors!" (1st Grade)

"Yokoso Maikeru Sensei - Welcome Michael-sensei" (5th Grade)

After those two classes I switched up to fifth year classes (10 and 11 year olds), with some self-introduction bingo. I know, it sounds lame, but the kids really get into it.

One kid announced that "My name is HANDSOME BOY" and his favorite color is "GOLD, the color of money!" Another kid said his favorite animal was "pen-iss," and like the dumbass that I am, I started laughing, forgot that I was the teacher and not the bad-influence uncle, and corrected him without thinking first; "no buddy, it's pronounced "pEE-nis." After that the whole class started screaming PENIS!!! at the top of their lungs. Damnit!

Lunchtime in the classroom - the kids serve each other and wear these smocks and masks and don't spill a single drop of food. (5th Grade)

Anyway, it was awesome and I had a blast. Fridays are going to be so cool!

"See you next week!" (5th Grade)

They call them Typhoons in the East

The etymology of the word typhoon comes from Chinese, "Da Fung," literally meaning "big (f'in) wind." That's what is going on outside of my 4th floor apartment right now as huge howling gusts are roaring past right now. I expect to see random shit (bikes, cows, small Japanese people) flying by my window at any moment. It poured rain all day yesterday (and yes, I did bike to school in the deluge, soaking myself in the process, oh joy). Today, the rain broke and the clouds have been whipping by all day, kind of like when the fog comes in back in San Francisco, but on a bigger and more ominous scale.

But, on the upside, if a typhoon comes (and it most certainly is) class is cancelled (yes!) but I still have to go to school (no!). At least it will provide a much needed respite from a rockstar weekend.

Softball Tournament in Ono (40 min north of Tatsuno):
(Man it's like the Asian version of Where's Waldo. Your boy 2nd from the left)... We are the Champions. Mr. Ono (1999 Raquetball Silver Medalist, seniors (over 40), Yuki, the dude from the gym, Markane from Seattle (another JET who works in my town), and yours truly amongst the other ringers.

I spent the majority of Saturday playing Softball with the Tatsuno Board of Education team. Every year, there is an all-prefectural (state) tournament, and every year, Tatsuno wins the tournament. Why, you ask? Because they stack the team with local athletic heroes, employees from the municipal gym, and a couple of random American imports (kinda like real Japanese baseball!).

We pretty much rolled through the tournament with a bye in the first round, a 12-2 rout in the second round, an 18-3 massacre in the semi-finals (I had a single, and an RBI, sweet). We finally met our match in the final round, playing the home team from Ono, who had a wicked fast pitcher, and good batting and fielding. It was a tough start, with Ono looking good 2-0 going into the second inning, and since we had played slo-pitch the whole day it took a bit for our team to adjust to the speed. Luckily our team had rockstar batting, a few lucky breaks and amazing fielding we were able to take the wind out of their sails in a hurry. Kudos to Markane for being walked, hit with the ball, and walked again for the catcher's mitt interfering with his swing (talk about lucky!!).

Final Score. Tatsuno is the kanji (Japanese writing) on the top. 2005 CHAMPS!

Osaka:
If softball wasn't enough, after getting home I headed into Osaka (about 1 and 1/2 hours from Tatsuno by express train) to explore the city and check out the nightlife. Osaka is the second biggest city in Japan and it's really really cool. It definitely feels more like American than any other place I've been to (except for Tokyo) with it's western stores, fashionable city-folk, and lack of rice fields.

After checking into the hostel (which was in the Tenderloin neighborhood of Osaka, but hey, what the hell it's only $20), we headed to Shinsaibashi, the younger and hipper neighborhood. A friend of mine was DJing at a club there, so we kicked off the night there. On our way in between venues, we passed some b-boys breakin' on the street street. Thinking of you lovely folks at home, I asked if I could snap a few photos. Sure no problem. At the same time, two of my JET Teaching buddies (Tyler and Jeff) are with me and they roll up too. Now these guys look really American, and when I say American, I mean they are white-boys in polos, jeans, and flip flops. And funny as hell:

So one of the Japanese breakers gives these guys the up and down and says (in a tough, thick, kung-fu accent):

"Whai don't chou do Samsing (something)?"

And I'm thinking, oh boy, some shit is about to go down. Jeff and Tyler (with Asahi and Sapporo to help) give each other a big American grin, get down on the ground and bust out with THE DOUBLE WORM! It was so funny, even the tough dude cracked up.

Didn't you see Ty in"Breakin'?" Oh so fresh.

So after that, Ty gets off the ground, turns to the dude, gives him his best Bruce Lee sneer, and says (also in a thick, kung fu accent):

"Why don't YOU do some-sing?"

So, he did:
They call him Turbo in Japan.

Yeah, pretty sick.

So afterward more wandering around, we ended up at an all Japanese nightclub with everybody looking totally glamorous and stylish, boogy-ing until about 5am. They played some eclectic mixes, from totally poppy candy raver stuff (there were even kids with glowsticks and everything) to totally dirty nasty hip hop, disco, funky house/breaks. Good lightshow and sound system. It kinda reminded me of 1015 Folsom, um, but with more Asians (if that's even possible) and less trash and people doped out on E. The Japanese really know how to get down and have fun, it was super good energy in that place... or maybe because Ty was re-enacting the worm on stage with a big posse of Japanese chicks in tow.

Night at the Roxbury.

This guy looked like how I felt at the end of the night. Takushi o onegaishimasu! (An honorable taxi, please!)


So the next day was spent in a hungover daze wandering around Osaka, with two of the highlights being the Hello Kitty Museum:

"er, the catnip... it's not mine."

...and of course, the ubiquitous:

"Makudonarudo Hanbaagaa" (yes Harmer, the Cheeseburger tastes the same)

Okay! The rain is coming down hard now and I think i can hear Mothra approaching in the distance. Love you and miss you all. Peace, -shu.

More Engrish...

This is at my favorite Ramen place in Tatsuno. I can't read the menu (it's all in Japanese, no pictures), so I have been pointing randomly and trying something new everytime I'm in there. The waitresses are kind and are humoring me so far, but I accidentally ordered some kind of raw beef as a side for my noodles the other night. Anyway, as I was finishing up these four sararimen (salarymen - office workers) came in and all sat down in a row. They dressed, looked, and even gestured all the same!

Oh yes. And more.

Himeji Castle

Imagine hordes of Samurai sieging this castle... well it actually never happened, but wouldn't it have been cool?

Himeji is the closest "real" city to Tatsuno. It's about a 20 minute train ride and has totally been my saving grace. It's got restaurants (I even found a Mediterranean Restaurant!), decent shopping (some cool vintage stores, record shops, and the shoes, my god, the shoes), and a big huge castle looming over the background at all times.

Since Himeji is my gateway to the rest of Japan (transfer here for Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo), I've been here a few times. One of the best visits was the tour of the castle, which is about 9 stories high (and each floor is about 25' high), has a huge garden/moat area, and a cool period museum in it:

Check out how small the people are compared to the castle. I nearly passed out climbing to the top of the main keep.

The coolest part was, the day we visited the castle, they were setting up for a concert on the castle grounds to happen that night (cool). Unfortunately it was a J-Pop show (lame), so we didn't buy the 5,000 yen ($1 = 100 yen) tickets. Nonetheless, how cool would it be to see Phish play Himeji Castle?! "Yah bro I ate some heady ganja gooballs at the castle show and I totally thought I was, like, in a samurai movie man." I'm going to see what it takes to book the castle grounds for the night. Maybe we can get Supreme to DJ, eh?