Hello everyone. I’m now in my third week of teaching in a Japanese school and am enjoying it very much. School days for Japanese teachers do seem a lot longer than American teachers. I remember getting finished with practice and no one was at school anymore. Here, teachers are working until 6, 7, 8 o’clock and then here before 8 in the morning. I usually arrive at the schools around 8:15 and stay ‘till at least 6. The reason for this is because I participate in various club activities after school. I try to go to a different one everyday so that I can interact with as many students as possible. So far I have been to the baseball, soccer, soft tennis, basketball, art, sadoo (Japanese tea ceremony), international, kendo, and badminton clubs. I enjoyed all of them, but kendo is something that is completely different from sports I’m used to so I am drawn to that. I already got a huge blister from one day’s practice .
After school activities here are a little different than those in Japan. First off, activities are year-round. No seasons here. You are pretty much playing or participating in the same club all year long. Most of the clubs start roughly at 3 and finish up at 6. Some clubs like soccer and baseball also will have practice in the morning sometimes. That’s a lot of practicing I think for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Teams that have to share facilities like the gym (i.e. basketball, badminton, volleyball) will alternate their workout schedule. One day is like a regular sports practice in America and the other is mostly conditioning training outside. The biggest difference that I noticed between American and Japanese club activities is that a large portion of practice is run by the kids.
Each team has a designated captain and they lead the practice for each club. Before practice they receive a schedule from their coaches for that days work. All of the kids are amazing. They don’t fool around too much. They want to get better and practice. They act as a team and help each other out. I was blown away by the patience they had at such a young age. They don’t make fun of one another if they mess up or just are not very good. Usually they will try and give advice. They will do it until they get it right too. I’ve seen them take multiple reps a few times and man are they patient. I was thinking at the time back home this wouldn’t fly, someone would have been fighting or something by now. They are even patient with me. I was coached for about 30 mins. on how to scoop up a birdy from the floor with a racket. One kid was not going to stop until I got it out, hahaha. And she did a great job in coaching me so that I could figure it out. The kids handle themselves extremely well and seem to truly love the activity they are involved in. They seem to enjoy when I come to visit their respective clubs and they will practice English, so I don’t mind staying a little later.
Side-note: Yeah, the header isn’t the greatest but I really wanted to put something up. Plus I have no experience using Flash or html, so I’m shocked I even got it up. I will try to clean it up if time permits, but probably not for a while ‘cause that crap took forever. Hope everyone is doing well.
Check out my new post TASTIES. I wanted to dedicate a whole page to the foods I discover in Japan, maybe it'll have to wait until I can get a real page. But I will post oishii (delicious) and interesting foods I find out here.
Later
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3 comments:
Reggie...we miss you. Thanks for sharing your website with me. I'll share it with everyone in the office. Sounds like you're with some great kids. Maybe you'll be able to beat the girl in badminton soon.
Can't wait to hear more about your adventures.
didnt you know thats how us asians roll... we dont be playin... straight disciplined hahhahah
Well said.
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