Toki-Tea-Tuesday

So far in my very large amounts of teaching Tuesdays here (2 total now), I have been with Mr. Toki all day. Today was the same. I taught 3 classes with him. The SLP said that I would only be teaching the first half of class, but as it turns out, I was teaching the whole time! It actually was fine - I was able to adapt and change things and the whole time was filled without issue.

Today we got to test out my other set of worksheets I made. The first set went really well, the second, not so well. I picked words that I thought for sure they would know (like ninja, sheesh!), but it was a lot of blank stares and quiet. It was almost excruciating. One student took it upon himself to answer all the questions. I'm grateful for him as I would give in on hard words but easy words (like ninja)... I waited. And waited. And waited. Painful. I think at the root of it is a dislike for English - but then there's the fact that the class laughed when I did my first read-through. I mean both sheets were funny (to me), but the other classes were so stoic about it. *facepalm* In any case, class overall went well. I just learned and am going to recalibrate. I have one other class who is in the same text and I am changing a few things but I also am going to keep some things the same to see if it's a class problem or if it's my instrument. I am more than willing to change and I think I may take dice with me to that class always. Sheesh. I hope they don't dislike me. :/ Anyway...

The teachers all sort of scattered after 6th period and Monday - Wednesday there are 7 periods. So I asked Kanamori-sensei if school was over. "No, no. It's cleaning time." -- Which happens after school. Ya, school was over. Well, there was cleaning time then bicycle inspections! I went outside to participate. Well, it amounted to me talking to and distracting the students who were in line. But they taught me some new Japanese words and we talked about bikes. :D It was really great. I feel like a celebrity with all the students calling out "Hello!" whenever they see me. :) After the students were told to put their bikes away it was club time. Kanamori caught me on the way back in (thank goodness as I wasn't sure which club I could visit or where they would be meeting, etc). She invited me to the Ceremonial Tea Club. It was SO COOL. They had a traditional tea room - well, a traditional tea room but bigger. Most traditional tea rooms are 4.5 tatami big. This one, since it services a school of 600+ students (ya, that's how many students I have!) is bigger. Here's a picture I found on the internet that shows what they look like:

They all have tatami and that nook with the flower and wall scroll

The one at the school did not have a flower but Kanamori-sensei showed me in her book that there is a traditional sweet and flower for each month of the year. If you want to have a real tea ceremony, you have to order the sweets ahead of time and she said they are quite expensive. We used a sweet from the local market. They used the correct tea though - powdered matcha/macha (green tea). She took us all outside the room and showed us the correct way to enter. The only boy in the club went first then they made me go next! o.0 I'm glad I got a turn but I wasn't ready to go second! *laughs* The girls helped me though and so I entered the traditional way. Then we were served. Kanamori-sensei helped me with the phrases I needed to say. There's a lot of bowing (of course) and when you pick up the sweet it has to be done a certain way. There are hand movements around the ohashi that must be done. Then the same with the tea. One has to move it and pick it up and hold it a certain way and then turn it, say a phrase, bow again and drink. The macha tasted much better than the tea bag green tea I've been offered. The girl serving the tea also goes through rituals as well.

The school has all those utensils but ours were on an ornate table

Powdered macha is used in the ceremony - the instrument on the right is a whisk

Overall it was a humbling experience. Hundreds (thousands probably) of years of tradition and I was being allowed to participate and was told about the aspects and helped through the ceremony. When I had to leave to catch my bus I thanked them and bowed low and long. I was so grateful to be included.

On the way home Bruce ended up being on the same bus so we got to talk shop a little. He was telling me about the way he's going about teaching pronunciation and I thought it was a great idea but I don't have his 4 years of experience here. He sketched out his idea but I would never be able to flesh it out. Still, it was cool to talk about teaching.

After I got off the bus I walked down to Maruichi (the grocery store). I needed groceries and I was under the impression that I would have guests this weekend for Hanami so in an effort to save them money, I bought food that I could cook for dinner. Shortly after I got home I found out no one is coming. :/ *Sigh* But as our family says, "Do you know what this means monkey-boy!? ..." :D

I had miso and these veggie patties I saw at the grocery store for dinner. Oh man they were SO good!

Oh! I forgot to tell you - on Sunday I ate an aloe yogurt. I didn't realize it, but when I bought a yogurt pack that had a fruit assortment somehow aloe made that list. It's funky. It doesn't taste bad but it tastes like aloe smells... it's just a strange experience. You know how smell evokes the strongest memories? Smelling and tasting that yogurt took me right back to Argentina. We were trying to reactivate Miriam (reactivate: help start coming back to church and encouraging someone to become fully active again) and she loved us. One day I had some sort of burn or cut and when she saw it she said, "I have just the thing for that!" She ran out to her yard with a machete and came back with this HUGE aloe leaf! It was about 2' long and at the widest part of the blade 1'. She squeezed the aloe out (and there was A LOT) right onto me! Aww I miss Miriam. What a wonderful woman! Anyway, funky.

I had a very good day and hoped you all did as well. Tomorrow I have my class of almost all boys. :D I've planned a musical chairs activity so hopefully that goes well! Here's wishing you the best all the way from Japan with love always! XOXO, A

Funny moments:

When Kanamori-sensei was describing the instruments to me she called the whisk a "whisker." English is a funny language. That should be ok to say as it describes what the tool does, but we never say whisker unless referring to animals!