Good Times

It was raining again today, but I didn't have to leave the school for anything, so I'm pretty dry today. Today, when I woke up, I genuinely felt cold. For the first time since arriving in Japan, I put on an extra layer of clothing before leaving my home.

Today, I had my first couple of classes that were not my self introduction speeches. It was interesting to see how Japanese teachers teach English. I was also asked to make a reading activity and a quiz. The Japanese teachers of English translate a lot of the lesson into Japanese, so to save them trouble, I translated the quiz questions into Japanese myself. My JTE was pretty happy about it - he even asked me to ask the kids those questions in English and then after, he told the kids I studied Japanese and asked me to read the questions again in Japanese. The kids were pretty happy about it too. Some of them were surprised as well.

Knowing some Japanese has certainly been beneficial so far, and I'm picking up new words on a daily basis now. It's pretty cool.

After class, I was heading back to the teachers room when I saw two girls walking past me in the hallway, on their way to class. I didn't really recognize them, but I said "hello~" anyways. Funny thing, they giggled and smiled and started making strange noises. The next thing I know, they were running down the hall.

I just came back from playing badminton with mentally challenged child. He was actually quite good. I also met him last week at the yakuba when I joined him and some other children to paint some pottery. I enjoyed it very much. He's a really nice kid.

Also, hopefully, I'll have more chances to spend time in the gym. One sad thing is that they have no hockey sticks here. They also only have two badminton rackets. I guess I'll try learning a different sport. Right now, after I get settled in and have everything set up, I think I might join some school clubs. Learning Kendo would definitely be cool. I might even join the homemaking classes - I need to learn how to cook!

Good times.