Korea

Since last Thursday was a holiday, I took an extra long weekend and went to Korea. It was a pretty interesting place, but a lot more similar to Japan than I expected. The food was better, because there was much less fish. English was also a lot more common there, which kind of made me jealous of all the people that teach in that country, because chances are they are more able to speak with their other teachers, students, neighbours, etc.

Anyway, we spent the first day in Seoul and saw some of the shopping areas, the Seoul Tower, a palace, and a market. I don’t really remember what we ate for each meal, but there was some Korean barbeque, some bibimbap, and some other stuff that was probably mostly kim chi.

On the second day we went on a tour of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, which was really interesting and probably my favourite part of the trip. We were able to go right up to the border in the the complex they have there. I was even able to technically stand in North Korea, although it was inside a building run by the South Koreans, and it was only like 2 feet across the border. Photography was pretty restricted in there though, so I couldn’t take pictures of too much. After that we went to a tunnel that the North Koreans had dug under the border. It was pretty huge, because they wanted to use it to invade, and we were able to walk into it.

Anyway, it was a good trip, even if it was only a short stay. Here are the pictures:

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“Let’s write to Drew sensei in English”

Dera Drow sensei.
Thank you for teaching, English. I had a good winter vacation. I want to Koube with my mother. I went to the mosaiku. I goed the sepping. I eating a Pasut and aisu.
Sincerely,
Shiori

Dera Drew sensei.
Thank you for teaching English. I went to the amusement park in Okayama with my family. I ate a spaghetti and drank a juice. I rided rollercoaster. I baught souvenir to my friends. I enjoyed it.
Sincerely,
Misaki

Dera Drew sensei.
Thank you fou teaching, English. I went to my friend’s house. I played games. I had a good time. I went to home at five o’clock. My bike is new.
Sincerely,
Shunichi

Hina Matsuri at the Imamura’s

Today I went to one of my recently graduated san nen sei’s house to see her Hina Matsuri doll display. I think in Japan that is actually a lot more normal than it sounds, because the display was definitely prominent in the house. Anyway, I really enjoyed it, not that I really understood why she had the dolls or what they meant, but it was nice to be invited over, and she was a lot less shy than in school. After looking at the dolls for like 5 min, I spent awhile talking with her, her mom, and her friend who was over. Anyway, here is a picture of the display, and the students:

Graduation

Yesterday was the san nen sei graduation, and it was different than I expected. In terms of the actual ceremony it was exactly what I expected actually: long, heavily scripted and entirely in Japanese. My actual feelings were a lot different though. Since I haven’t had class with these students in quite awhile, and even then couldn’t really talk to them in much detail I thought I would be fairly indifferent to them leaving, but I wasn’t. At one point after the actual ceremony all the students and teachers lined up on either side of the walkway outside the school and the san nen seis all paraded through on their way out of the school. As one student who I am particularly fond of passed, she ran out from the group and gave me a letter and thanked me. I don’t think anything could make me want to be a teacher more.

After that all the san nen seis and their families gathered in the parking lot next to the school to take pictures and talk. Leaving the school seemed to give some of the kids much more courage, since more asked to have their pictures taken with me than were forced to by their parents. At the end the student who gave me the letter asked me if I knew what the Hina Matsuri was (I thought she said Hanami Matsuri, “cherry blossom viewing”, so I said I did), then she invited me to her house on the weekend to see her family’s display. I was really impressed that she was both brave enough to ask me, and that she was good enough to do it all in English. Anyway, I said I would go and then looked up Hina Matsuri on Wikipedia (it means Girl’s Day). Anyway, here are the pictures:

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Graduation Enkai

Yesterday was the san nen sei graduation (I will make a post about it later, when I have the pictures uploaded), so after work all the teachers went to Yabu for an enkai. It was pretty fun, but really made me wish I spoke Japanese. Kakio sensei couldn’t make it, so that meant only two people there could understand me when I spoke.

At one point the homeroom teachers started making speeches (I assume about missing the san nen seis, or being proud of them), which was nice because they showed more emotion than I expected.

Since I parked at the school, and then got driven home by the restaurant bus (really convenient), I had to walk to work today. I ran into one of the ichi nen sei girls who lives near me, so I walked with her and got her to talk a bit which was nice.