My First Day at 小学校

Yesterday was my first day at an Elementary school. They told me to come in at around 10am, so I actually got to sleep in a bit which was great since I figured I would need extra energy with the little kids. I left my home at around 9:30am, giving me about half an hour to get their by bike. I wanted to give myself some extra time in case I got lost. I ended up getting there in 6 minutes flat, but since the school is, like all the other schools in this town, located on top of a hill, it took around another 6 minutes to bike/push my bike up the hill. By the time I got up there, I was already breathing heavily...damn those hills.

I brought all my self introduction materials I had used at my Junior High School. The first thing I noticed was that the staff were much more relaxed here. The kids were small and cute - they reminded me a lot of the kids I worked with back in Toronto. My supervisor showed up to help introduce me to the staff and kids, and they asked me to give a little speech in Japanese. The teachers really don't know English well enough, so I did my best.

After that, I sat down on the couch and waited for the kids to come and get me. Soon enough, a little boy came to get me. He was in the 5th grade. I asked him what his name was, and he said "Sugawara Sho". I was shocked, because just a week earlier, I spoke with this guy who was the local sushi chef's friend, and he told me his son went to Kannari Elementary School, and that his name was Sugawara Sho, and to look for him.

I did my self intro for the 8th time. The feeling was definitely different. The kids had much bigger reactions to the pictures I showed them. At the same time, it felt pretty cool to finally be in control of the class. At the Junior High School, I'm really just a helper, as in I do whatever the teachers tell me to do. But here in the Elementary School, I'm the only English teacher, so I get to control the class and do basically whatever I want.
After I did my self intro for the 9th time with the 6th graders, it was time for lunch. I was eating lunch, when suddenly a small 2nd grader started yelling at me from outside the staffroom. He kept asking me to come play with him in Japanese. I had never seen the kid before, but after I finished lunch, I went outside and asked him what his name was. He said his name was "Kou". I played with him and his friends. They asked me to be an "Oni", which basically means "demon" or "beast" or whatever, and to chase them around the field/playground. This definitely felt like camp all over again. After chasing them around for a while, they told me that they were the Oni now, and started chasing me. I started running, dodging these little "demons". Then, finally I got caught. Not only did I get caught, soon enough, I felt some fingers jabbing into my behind.
Sure enough...I had been Kancho-ed. And not only that, the kids started going for the front as well~ I started playing dodge games with them, but for me, I was just trying to run as far as I could. Thankfully, outpostnine had given me a heads up on this crazy stuff. I definitely didn't have to worry about that stuff back in Toronto.

After lunch, I did my self intro for the 10th time, this time for a combined class of 3rd and 4th graders. The really interesting thing was that one of the 4th graders, named Hitomi looked really Chinese to me. Soon enough, one of the teachers let me know that her mom was from China. I was pretty surprised by this. Kannari is a small small town out in the middle of nowhere. With a population of around 8000, everyone in my town could go to the Air Canada Centre for a hockey game, and they'd only take up around 50% of the seats.....yet there was this girl with a Chinese mother. Wow. Kannari definitely just became more interesting to me. I'm really hoping I'll get a chance to meet her mother soon enough. Unfortunately, the kids all go home by themselves, and sure enough, Hitomi left by herself. I told her to talk to her mother for me. I also tested her Mandarin, and sure enough, it sounded pretty native level, although the only phrase I could remember to utter was "ni hao".

After my classes were finished, I went outside to play with "Kou" again, and we used this frisby-type thing. They kept throwing it in an awkward yet successful way, and soon enough they started complaining about the way I was throwing it. Apparently, since it's not a regular frisby, my throws kept veering away from the target. Anyways, I ended up staying there 2 hours past the required time, and left at around 6pm. I hadn't had that much fun since, well summer camp back in Toronto.

On my way home, I decided to take a different route home, since I really hadn't had a chance to explore the town much up to that point. I went through a few back alleys, and ended up going up and down, curving around a few houses. Finally, I ended up in front of a church. I knew there was a church in the town, since I had seen photos of it on the internet, but I hadn't actually seen it in person up to that point. It was definitely an interesting feeling. There was this Russian Orthodox church in the middle of a town of 8000, in rural countryside Japan. Interesting, but at the same time, a bit creepy, since apparently, no one in the towns knows if they can actually go inside the building. I intend to find out soon enough though.

Elementary school was a refreshing break from my job at the Junior High School. Definitely looking forward to my next visit.