Week 55: Sports day is coming, and a little adventure

Ok, so sports day is coming!  It's a big deal for Elementary schools, and for most of them, it will be October 1.  (which is a little earlier than usual, but oh well.)

Sports day means that I have a little more free time, as the kids have a lot of preparing to do.

Except in my Monday/Tuesday school, because they seem to know how to balance it.

Oh! Entertaining!  So, my liaison teacher for Monday/Tuesday had to do an observation lesson this week.  I thought it was gonna be Monday, but it turns out it was Tuesday.  The thing is, usually for observation lessons, they come in and watch me teach.  This time they wanted to see how we taught TOGETHER.

(sh, we don't)

No, really.  I kinda take over a class and use the homeroom teacher for the OCCASIONAL translation and as a really smart kid to do examples with.   They don't mind, because that means when they're short a teacher, they don't need someone in there watching me (or the kids)

So we had to pretend we team teach ALL the time.  I don't think they bought it, those poor students were SO confused.  First of all, I do a lot of routine.  Especially for Elementary students, this gives them confidence.  He...did not know all the routine.  And he kept trying to introduce new activities or parts of activities.  Like, we did "If you're happy" and he got rid of "clap your hands" and wanted "give high fives"

I was really proud of this.

Which is fine in concept, but try making it match the beat.  Take a moment, I dare you.

Doesn't work as well, does it?  But who am I to say?!

I come in, have them stand up and I say "Good morning class!"
They respond "Good morning Kim Sensei!"
"How are you?"
"I'm ______, and you?"

He came in, said "Good morning everyone. How are you doing today?"

ARGH.

He's a good teacher, I've seen him work, but gosh DARN it, he doesn't know our routine. 's what I get for teaching on my own I guess.  The kids finally got the hang of it, and they ended pretty well.

They were also nervous, and I can't blame them, we had about 10-15 teachers hanging around!

So, other schools were practicing for Sports day.  On Friday, the school did a dress rehearsal of their opening ceremony.

This included entering the area

sitting, ready

come in and sit down

FLAAAAAAAG

I'm not sure if you remember from last year, but there are always two major teams.

red and white.

They did their war cry.

And then they did...Um... I'm not sure what I'd call it.  A ball race?

they raced to their group,

and the ball went over the team

And they did this twice!  And it looked like lots of fun!  But I don't know what I'd call it.

And yeah!  That's gonna be their opening ceremony.  This is not the school I will be attending sports day at, so I'm glad I got to see it. :)

Saturday, I did not do adult stuff.  I made pancakes.  While I was cooking the last one, I was musing over why they just weren't cooking up right, when I realized I never put the salt in.  Amazing what a mere 1/2 tsp salt can do!

I still ate them.

Then I went to Kyoto!  There were a few festivals going on, and I flipped a coin and Kyoto won.  It was a little out of the way, so I decided to walk the mile from the train station, and I saw a lot of interesting stuff!

Hair pins! The only time I regret having short hair.

Ah, Japan fashion

Orchids!

...with maple leaves painted on them.  There was glitter too.

I...I really don't know.

I didn't get to go with anyone, so I got to take my time. A long part of the walk was along this stream

It was lovely.

I soaked my feet!

And I got to talk to some tourists for a while.  :)  They asked how teaching in Japan was and I was like "there are pluses and minuses"

And they said "What are some of the minuses?"

"Well...I can't speak Japanese."

"Ah.  And a plus?"

"I'M IN JAPAN."

We parted ways and I finally made it to the shrine!

sucker's big.

And festival!

wooo!

The blurb for the festival said "The Park's paths will be lined with exciting stage shows"

IT LIED.

There was one long carpet

though it is nice.

And one stage.  I looked around, this is all.

But, you know what? It was nice!  There was, of course a lot of food. Japan loves their food.  Fair booths are 90% food.  And it wasn't just the normal fair food!  They had some hoity-toity ones, which is how I ended up with a "home-made hot dog"!

LOOK AT THAT.  It was WONDERFUL. The bread was crusty, there were sauteed onions, and the sausage was...mmm

And the other booths were fun too! It was kinda like an arts fair?  Like this umbrella I saw!

today on "things I want but can't afford"

And they had this...like...county fair judging of local products?  But anyone who walked into the tent could judge?

There were English translations

They didn't want to give me a survey at first, probably because they thought I was a tourist.  I insisted though, and did my fair and impartial judging.

"This looks tasty.  I vote for it because it is NOT green tea."

I went to the actual shrine proper.

hadn't been to this one yet.

I think they're gonna have a show.  It needed tickets, so I didn't go.

this tree has a story, and I will never know it.

They had stage shows!  Just on the one stage, which actually worked out pretty well for me, because it means I didn't feel like I was missing anything. :)

There was a rock group!

of high schoolers! (maybe middle)

high school band!

And there was a dance group!  It was a huge group and sections of it did dances to songs from different parts of the world!

Like America

Korea

South...Africa..I think?

All together!

They were AWESOME  (gonna see how much video I can put on)

But seriously, their footwork was amazing.
I also got a lot of one the America group did to "Uptown Funk" because it was just fun to watch! :)  It was too long to fit on here though.

There was adult stuff too

they even did a medley of "Sound of Music"!

I have a video of this one, but you don't wanna hear it.  Really.

And...I don't think there was another one, but I'm not sure because I took a nap.  I woke up to...this.

you SURE I'm awake?

And it was a slow and silly procession.  They even had some little kids.

pictures get progressively worse as the sun sets.

And I figured I'd call it a day, so I started walking out.

Then I saw a bunch of people starting to sit on the ground in front of a building.

I don't know why we're here, but I'm game!

Well, it took a while, sunset and all that.  And there was some traditional music.  Again.  Much nicer sounding than the other group.  I call this "mournful kazoos"

And then the show started!  It was projection mapping! (?)  Basically, it's that thing where they project videos onto the building, taking into account the shape and fixtures of the building, so a lot of the time it looks like the building is moving/exploding/shifting, etc.

demon party!

Some of it looked...like a trip.  I'll be honest.  It was more fun than breathtaking, but still pretty cool.
I stayed until my butt decided it was done sitting on the ground. :)

Got a taco (I've found a lot better ones lately. what's up with that?) and hoofed it home.

I'm really looking forward to this next week!  Two days off! :D