Judo Camp

I showed up for the last day of judo camp today. I didn't participate much, but it was a good experience. There were four other schools in addition to the usual crew. It also happened to be the send off for the judo coach. I left with a judogi, obi (ignore the typo), and some perspective. 小島先生 had a huge turnout for his last official day. There were a lot of tears too.

The miscellaneous bits:
I got some pictures from Taiki. His judo is somewhat better than his photography, or at least he should stop using his cell-phone to take pictures. I also got some advice from a certain teacher about career related things. Never know what could happen.

50% off what?

Well, it was a really good year, and I wish it could be as easy as repeating it. But, who could do those same lesson plans again without dying of boredom? Who'd miss the excitement of your first day going to a new school with no directions? Who wants to be around people who've already experienced you embarrassing yourself for a year??? The cherry blossoms are calling me, they say it's time for a change. They also told me to drink that はっぽしゅ. やっぱりうまいね、桜。

Another day over

For the second time in as many recent school events, I've managed to be... chagrinned.

I noticed, on several occasions, that I know the seating arrangements of my Urawa students more than I know their names, personalities, or our history together. It's a bigger school. It's less personal.

I had to give a speech this morning. I expected to go on stage, talk, get out. Not so however. The principal, a nice woman who I've talked to for seconds this year, told the students how great a teacher I was. I said my bit and was presented with a bouquet. It wasn't as fancy as the flowers from Shonan, and they look like they're dying already, but it was nice to get something.

One of my team teachers, who is being let go, spent some time talking to me. I also had some good conversations with the judo coach, retired as of today, and a teacher being transferred to Shonan.

The longest part of my day was spent cleaning the student dormitory for the judo camp starting tomorrow. 小島先生, the judo teacher, asked me to come to judo practice in the next few days, so I can pick up the embroidered black belt he had made for me. Haha, black belt. Anyway, the kids were great. They gave me a framed picture thing, and we said our maybe-goodbyes.

Mixed day.

The Unexpected Send-off

I've been surprised more than once this year by who cared, by who showed up, by who noticed. I had a nice visit and photo session with the 2-5 girls. Not that the photos are good. Just they took a bunch, then I took some. My fair timing and mediocre technique both took the day off however.

If you were wondering, this class could be best described as "うるせえだよ！" but I quite liked them. I didn't learn quite how to teach them, but we had fun sometimes, and I saw them a lot when they were getting ready for the school festival. I learned how to make ボンボン and other typical decorations from these kids.

I guess if could have chosen who was to come say goodbye, I'd have wanted this class.

End of an Era

I can't say that I enjoyed today.

During my farewell speech in the morning meeting I was surprised with a bouquet of roses and such. Being given flowers by an older man (西野先生, the badminton coach) was an interesting experience. Later, a note was tossed on my desk by a badminton girl who immediately ran away in tears. I went to my last(?) badminton practice instead of doing real work. I made my farewells to all the teachers. They said they hope I can teach there again next year. On my way out, another badminton girl said goodbye...while crying. We hugged and I pinky promised I'd practice with the team next week.

Altogether it feels like it finished, and finished too soon.

Japanese Harlem Globetrotters

Did I forget the second year boys? They're judo if you were wondering.

The big group.

I've been trying to say "yes" to anything recently, of course within reason. The badminton girls asked me to go to their practice on Wednesday, at 7:30. That's in the morning. Meaning, waking up at 5:30 may not get me there in time. Gonna give it a shot though. Satsuki made me pinky swear. There's a song for that in Japanese.

I forgot to change my camera settings from the badminton tournament before, so these pictures were all done, in excellent lighting, at 800 ISO.

Junior High basketball girls have to get really short haircuts. Usually it's really unattractive. To be different from all the other sports clubs that force kids to get unattractive haircuts. (sarcasm included) But, the girls here have hair of their own design. The colour is school mandated though.

American Ninja XII

Is this the kind of reaction a martial artist deserves? Sorry, I meant to say Martial Artist.

"I'm just happy to be here."

West side. The girls wanted me to do an "American pose". What the hell is that? They seemed to think hiphop/rap gestures were the American equivalent of the Japanese peace sign. Who am I, to disappoint them?



"I'm not happy to be here. I just hate you." She's a nice girl, down deep. I told another teacher that this girl hates me. The reply, "Oh no, she hates everyone. She hates me too." I spent a year, and one concentrated term, trying to get her to talk to me, and she did, in the last lesson. And that is what an ALT calls victory.

Spidey!

J-J-J-J-J-J-J-Judo

It may have been my last day of judo today, depending on whether I get another year at the same schools or not. I took a bunch of pictures, and the boys deleted their pictures when I let them play with the camera. What makes a person think, "Hey, I've got over a thousand dollars in camera equipment here. Why don't I just let a bunch of judo-playing kids use it."

Anyway.

She's going with another judo girl to see Emily Rose tonight. Soooo, when I saw her go out to the fountain after school, I thought it would be a good idea to hold up my hand in front of her. She was so scared when she got up from drinking that she spit water all over herself, me, the surrounding area. It sounds disgusting, but it was actually pretty funny.

The only non-deleted boys. The tall one trades DVDs with me. He seems to have some developmental problems, as he truly believes Biohazard 2 was a better movie than Biohazard 1. What's that in American terms? Resident Evil?

A famous Japanese comedian. She incidentally weighs under 20 kilos. I had a nice conversation with her about these photos today.

"笑いすぎましたね。”
"Usually?"
”ええ。Usually?”
”ふつ。”
Then she punched me. No respect from these kids.


柔道パンチ！ This is why I study judo.

She's actually under 150cm tall. How did I bend that much with my knees.

People, Faces, Badminton

Aspiring, always, to be the world's least successful photographer, I have taken dozens of photos today in order to come up with these five pictures, somewhat in focus.

In order:

Ryou: Good player. Bad knees and elbow but he wins. Needs to learn to keep his hands to himself.

Gaku: Ambiguous (my point?). Second year valedictorian (as a last minute replacement). Overachiever. Ryou's badminton partner.

Yuko: Academic underachiever, but socially more than functional. Trust me, it's a big point at this school.

Megumi: 小人. My favourite from the badminton club. She scored a 76% on her OC final, without ever speaking to me in an English lesson.

Yoshizawa-kun: My badminton practice partner. Or at least most of the time. He's １年生 but it's cool. He surprises me with how much English he knows.

Mark. You oughta tell me what I'm screwing up in these pictures. I think I got the timing right to best portray their personality, just the actual mechanics of the pictures suck.

Let the games begin

Today was the なんとか埼玉県バドミントンダブルズ大会 and I went along to support the team. It was an amazingly long day, to watch about one Shonan match per hour at the tournament.

It's a single elimination tournament, and five of our pairs lived up to that immediately, being eliminated in their first game. Two teams had advanced a round or two and two teams had yet to play when they stopped for the day. Everything resumes on Tuesday (春分の日) when I plan to be relaxing and not spending 12+ hours watching high school sports.


Most people who know my opinions on art probably know that collage is not a consideration, as I would never imagine it could be art. I promise never to attempt collage again.

Out with Yukie

Did the tour of Omiya yesterday. Had a nice time with Yukie. Won some billiards.

Amazing how busy it gets on a Saturday. Two places we went were closed for parties. Round 1 had a 1.5 hour wait for bowling, so we went to Hata. That place is falling apart. (The building, although the clientel could use some work too.) It's really hard to bowl there as I believe the lanes have grooves worn into them and the balls are made of some cheap plastic. I think my scores reflect this.

A Tale of Two Ceremonies

I wasn't really expecting much to match the Shonan graduation, and I was right. This was as military precise as possible. The extra touches that made Shonan's personal were missing here, especially the graduating class singing a song. I only know six of the gratuates, so that had some influence too.

The １年５組 girls made the day interesting for me at least, but even they couldn't help me in my losing battle to focus my camera properly.

Hall and Teacher's Room

1: Two mutually incompatible students I guess. Both have provided their share of amusements this year.

2: Great kid. Great hair.

3: All from the same class. Talkative bunch. The one in front may study English at Uni.

4: The girl who's half in focus talks to me a lot. Great English, but she studies at school and at a conversation school. I'll miss having her around.

Kids in the hall...

Stuff from the hall, wanderin' 'round...

1: One of my team teachers with a great student and mom. She has a great "huge smile" which is not on display here. Too late on the trigger.

2: The 顔黒ギャルズ, although named by me. My most enthusiastic, disruptive, loudest, best studentses ever.

3: Stunning contact lenses on a great student. I'm not comfortable with how this photo looks though.

4: Ha ha ha. They asked me later, "Do you like piston?"