Okuganaya Classes

Today I went to Okuganaya for my first actual classes with the kids. I had three classes: grades 1, 2 and 3, then grades 4 and 5, then grade 6. When I got there the teacher who I think has basically been put in charge of telling me things (even though she doesn’t speak English), told me one of the games I planned would probably be too hard, so I should just do rock, paper, scissors with them instead. I thought this would get boring really fast, but it didn’t. I started off by asking who liked “janken” (rock, paper, scissors in Japanese), and then kids freaked out and started playing it. Then I told them the words in English, and the whole class played against me for like 20min. They also asked me to play more in the hall, and during lunch.

Today the students also made a significant discovery: I have much hairier arms than a Japanese person. This of course led to much touching of my arms, which I was not completely comfortable with, but it was pretty clear I couldn’t stop it. They never said anything about it, they just stared and then touched, or just stood beside me, looked straight ahead and then reached to the side to touch my arm as though I wouldn’t notice.

Lunch was pretty gross. When I got to school Takahashi sensei said that for lunch we were having “saba (mackerel) with miso paste on it”. It was about as gross as it sounds, just a hunk of fish covered in some goo. The kid beside me took care of it.