Since I last wrote, I finished my first week of school! On Tuesday I went to one of my elementary schools and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. There are only 25 kids in the school so I did my self-introduction lesson for the entire school. Then I ate lunch with the 1st years - the youngest kids in the school. There are 4 of them in one class - 2 boys and 2 girls - and they are ADORABLE. They put on their little pink hats and robes and make an assembly line to put together the lunches. Getting served by a 5 year olds and then cleaning the school with them definitely felt a little like witnessing child labor, but it's part of the culture and they really are so cute!
The rest of the week was then spent back at my Junior High. I had a pretty full schedule, which was nice, and got to know some of the students better. There's a break in between lunch and cleaning the school, so I've found that this is a great time to learn some Japanese and talk to my students. On Thursday they told me that I have a great fashion sense, which makes me want to go buy a whole new wardrobe since Japanese fashion is crazy! I also got to go the 'Friends Room' which is the special education room. I drew some pictures with the kids, and I think they appreciated that I came to spend time with them. But who knows - they never tell you anything but compliments in Japan anyways...
I also got to play some more tennis with the kids. On Thursday I wore these hot pink running shorts which aren't short by American standards but definitely don't reach my knees, so between the color, the length, and the fact that I'm blonde and white, I got stared at a lot. I don't know if the shorts are inappropriate, but I also didn't bring any long shorts with me... I know they won't say anything here because culturally the Japanese just wouldn't, so I'll wear them. I told my JTE to tell me if I do something wrong, so I'll trust that she will and keep on playing.
Friday night we had a gun event (pronounced goon) which is basically like a county. It was a great chance to meet some of the JETs that live close to me and I finally got to meet the 4th ALT that lives in Aso. She's on her 5th and final year, so she really knows the ropes. She also really likes the outdoors so I'm excited to have someone active to spend some time with!
We all went bowling and then to an Irish pub in Ozu, the city next to Aso. It was a great night but I stayed out too late since I needed to be up early to head down to the south of the prefecture for the KumaJET beach party. (KumaJET is basically the Kumamoto JET association that plans social events, philanthropy events, etc. through out the year)
The beach was absolutely beautiful! I tried zorbing, which basically puts you inside this giant ball filled with some water and then rolls you down a hill, and also luging. Both were tons of fun! After the beach day, we set up camp at a local campsite and had a bbq and party. I got to meet a lot more of the JETs that had already been in Kumamoto for a while, including randomly, one girl that went to USC, graduated my year AND lived in my dorm freshman year. (She was 9th floor, I was 8th!) I also met another girl that went to Cornell and knows a lot of Newton people (surprise, surprise) so we had a lot of friends in common.
A group of my friends didn't spend the night though, so I left with them and went back to one of their apartments to sleep. The next day we worked on planning our trip to Osaka to go visit a friend from orientation. Silver week is coming up, September 19-23, so we thought it would be a great time to try out the bullet train (goes over 300mph!) and check out Osaka and hopefully Kyoto as well. More details to come but hopefully all the planning with turn out alright. Japanese = difficult.
Overall everything is still going really well! It's hard to keep in touch without the internet, but it's getting me out of the house more! Hopefully I'll be able to post again soon, but for now, ăăăȘă！ (Sayonara)
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