Burento in Japan

So, I was just going to write this about yesterday at Idai Bunko, the school within the hospital, but this morning changed that.  Yesterday was such a sweet day and today it’s like
Japan hates me.

I didn’t have to catch the bus to Idai Bunko (said E-da-E Boonko) until 9:43, a welcome change to the 6:30am mornings and I had been told that I could catch the 12:50 bus home.  So…short day to start…SUGOY!  So I’m waiting for the bus at around 9:30 and the next thing you know I see a guy wave and his car stop about 4 meters away from me.  I look at the woman standing next to me like…that’s probably u’r friend and they’re offering you a ride.  Lo and behold a teacher from Adachi pops out of the car, apparently he was off because he was supposed to go to Thailand but cancelled because of the coup d’etat there.  So he orders me to get in and asks me where I’m going.  I tell him and he drives me all the way to the school.  This was good and bad.  I was kinda freaked about taking the bus here because it’s completely different.  You get on at the back and take a ticket and the bus drives along.  At the front are different numbers, the numbers of each stop.  The ticket you take has a number on it as well.  That’s the stop you got on at.  So when you want to get off you press the button, look at the number u have, walk to the front and drop u’r ticket and u’r money in this conveyer belt thing.  It doesn’t actually count the money.  This just like everything else here is based on the honour system.  So, it was good that he took me right to the hospital but bad because I didn’t experience the bus so I was still in the dark for my ride home.  Also a bad thing was that my supervisor at the hospital was waiting for me at the bus stop but…he dropped me off on what I could tell was the other side of the hospital.  I was early though and had maps.  So I kinda wandered through the hospital grounds which are also a medical college until I found where I was supposed to be.  All and all the drive was a good thing, cuz I was there early, but I realized that I couldn’t even go to the office early because I didn’t know where it was.  So, I stood there and stood there expecting a Japanese woman to approach the only gaijin all dressed up standing in front of the hospital.  But nothing…eventually the bus I would have taken arrived and I saw a Japanese woman standing at the stop, which I was across from looking frantically at the people coming off the bus, I realized she was looking for a random gaijin.  So I went over and she was a very nice woman, her English was par for the course here in Japan so I was fine.  She took me up to the third floor of the hospital and I met the staff there.  About 12 teachers in total and a vice principal.  They were all very nice.  Then she showed me the 3 rooms they teach in and after sat me down in like a lounge area.  They immediately brought me tea and chocolates (a first) but hey…I was down. 

My first class was elementary school kids.  Three grade 2’s and a grade 4 student.   Along with a 14 year old girl who could not talk or move but could apparently understand.  As well, about 9 teachers were in the class.  The kids were great, they volunteered to introduce themselves and were so excited.  The one grade 4 girl was not excited and very shy but you win some you lose some.  There was a little boy who was like the coolest kid I have ever seen.  Even behind his little mask (they all had masks on, which doesn’t phase me as generally I can’t go a day without seeing at least 10 Japanese people with masks on) he was soo happy and just energetic.  He had some type of skin disorder or something that made it seem as if he had something along those lines.  But man, was this kid amazing.  Standing up and asking me all kinds of questions, in Japanese of course and then having them translated.  They were all great kids.  I went through a slide show of myself, Canada, Hamilton, my family, my friends (which I figure should be edited), food in Canada, and last but not least…Mo…because having a girlfriend is apparently the biggest topic even for adults.  All the teachers even did self introductions in English and shook my hand.  You should have seen the little boy shake my hand, it was priceless, he couldn’t fit his hand around mine so he used both hands and tried to squeeze so hard….hilarious.  So I gave them all the choice of pins or pens or whatever.  They all picked one said thank you and went back to their rooms.  I had gone over time in my elementary class so I went straight to my junior high school class with no break…which seemed to amaze the teachers.  I did the same presentation again for a 14 year old boy who was NOT interested in English at all.  This presentation as well had about 8 teachers in the room.  It went alright….but whatever, the teachers actually made it better asking questions and stuff like that.  After this I was supposed to go, but they asked me if I would go and see a few kids who were too sick to go to class that day.  Which I obviously agreed to…cuz why not? 

            So I met a few little girls who were all in bed but sitting up and alert and went through some pictures I had brought with me.  There was one girl that was just amazed with Niagara falls…she wouldn’t let me flip to the next picture and kept saying that the picture looked like clouds.  I gave each kid a gift after spending about 5 to 10 minutes with them and they took pictures galore.  I didn’t bring that up but they must have taken about 100 pictures during my first lesson and even afterwards got everyone together and took a picture.  I’m going to try and get a hold of them so I can put them up.  One girl was asleep so her mother asked me the questions that she had prepared the night before and then gave me some origami that her daughter had done.  So, I finished my rounds and went back to the teachers lounge where once again, more chocolate and more tea.  I felt like a prince which was weird.  My supervisor/JTE then attempted to have a very political debate with me about Bush, America, Koizumi (Japanese P.M), Abe (new Japanese P.M as of like tomorrow, or maybe even yesterday, said like the sound for A then B in French…not BEE, but bei), the war in Iraq, etc etc.  It was weird because I couldn’t use very technical terms so….it made it a difficult topic.  But it was interesting none the less as at least she made an attempt at a very challenging conversation.  She even walked me all the way to the bus stop and talked with me until I got on the bus.  As the bus drove away she just kept bowing.  Oh, and they gave me 4 Japanese pears and a thing of Japanese grapes.   They taste different, and they are HUGE…the grapes I mean, the pears I imagine are the same….woops class time.  Well that went well….ya, so it was a great time.  The bus home wasn’t bad at all and now I’ve done the bus thing, so that’s another thing accomplished.

Last night I did nothing…and I mean nothing, I sat on the internet eating mammoth grapes and watching youtube.com stuff. 

This morning I got up at 6:30 and heard a weird noise.  Oh what was that noise you ask??  Oh it was TYPHOON RAIN!!  So I decided…ha ha…I’m up early enough, I’ll take the train…ha ha…screw u rain!!  Well, I leave my place and start walking…ya, someone forgot to mention that TYPHOON RAIN doesn’t fall straight down.  It blows and falls all over the place, blowing sideways, etc etc.  So…I was soaked by the time I did the 10 min walk to the station, but I looked at my watch, 7:30, sweet, the train is at 7:34 and my watch is like 5 min ahead.  So I get to the station and there are a ton of people there….I wait and wait and wait underneath an over hang and no train.  The 7:37 train the other way pulls in and leaves.  There’s a lot of announcing going on and I don’t understand what is going on.  I took my ipod off and looked confused so that hopefully someone would tell me what was going on…but no.  Remarkably at 7:55, the time I would have left home if I was riding my bike….the rain stops.  JUST STOPS!  So now I’m soaked, I left my house early cuz I thought haha I’ll be smart…well the rain showed me.  Then the train finally shows up at 8 and I have to run for 20 minutes in order to be on time for work and then I had to go to the bank again by myself cuz my supervisor bailed on me again.  (oh ya, it’s 8:40pm now)  The moral of this story is…after having a sweet day yesterday, I had such a crappy day today.  The universe just can’t let me win one.  But the rest of my day was good, classes went well, I amaze myself sometimes when I’m in there…not tooting my own horn but you know…like stuff comes out of my mouth and all of a sudden kids look enlightened and I’m like…wow…so ya.  Just went to my first sake shop…got them to recommend something for me.  I’m obviously not cracking that bottle by myself on a Wednesday night…but hey, now I have it for a rainy day….oh…wasn’t it raining today…lol.  K, bye everyone.

Brent