AHello again after a loooong absence! I haven’t been busy so much as distracted by some of the cool things I was doing over the past month. Even though we’re already halfway through the month of January, let’s see how well I with a New year’s Resolution of write more often.
Anyway, I am just going to do a quick rundown of some of the activities that happened in school and in my personal life.
First off, the girls in the Junior High School English club continue to be adorable. Around Thanksgiving, I had the girls draw hand turkeys, and they had to write one thing they were thankful for in each “feather” before coloring it in. After that activity, we played Fruit Basket but with a Thanksgiving twist. Normally, the students sit in a circle, and a person in the middle has to say something that they like. If other students like the same thing, they have to stand up and find another chair. The last student standing has to start over again.
Instead of saying “I like . . .” I had the students say “I’m thankful for . . . .” Some students said “I’m thankful for chocolate.” Some of them were thankful for their parents, or their pets, or their favorite pop idol groups like One Direction, or Arashi. When it came time to end the game, the last girl in the middle got all of the others to say together, “I’m thankful for Victoria!” They’re so precious!
Also, just before winter break started I had the girls play a game where they had to draw Santa in teams, but they had to draw different parts of Santa out of order. Basically, everyone started off with Santa’s beard on the chalkboard, and then I pulled out different slips of paper that said Santa’s hat, Santa’s belt, Santa’s boot, etc. There was one group who added a rocket chair for Santa, because they accidentally drew their Santa very short. I had to double check and ask them if they drew flames coming out of the chair, because it also looked like it could’ve been a picture of Santa having explosive diarrhea. Not that I think the Junior High school girls have dirty minds, but I also wouldn’t put it past them to make poop jokes if they think those are funny.
The finished Santa Drawings
We also had our winter English camp the weekend before the school closing ceremony. The winter camp is much more laid back than the summer camp. We just held it at Inagakuen, and no one stayed overnight. The second year students still had to do a lot of debate. In fact, I’m pretty sure this winter camp was more debate-heavy for our second year students, than it has been in the past. I did not do any fun workshops with any of the second year students; I just watched them have different rounds of debate.
However, I did get to do some fun workshops with the first year students. Of course, we usually have a Christmas theme around this time. I had the students play a Christmas-themed matching cards game, and then I had students do a fill-in-the-blank listening activity with Christmas Carols! After listening and filling in the missing words on their worksheets, they learned how to sing the Christmas Carol in English! I taught the students how to sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.
Salimah and I also lead all of the first year students in drama-games to help them prepare for their skit contest. We played a game where they had to practice facial expressions for different emotions, and a “sculptor” game where the students were in pairs, and had to “sculpt” their partners into different things, such as Harry Potter, a detective, or dancer.
The end of the English camp culminated into the first year’s skit contest, and the second year’s final debate round. The overall theme for our English camp was Frozen, so for our closing ceremony, we had all of the students sing Let It Go, in English, before dispersing.
Even though I had to work during a weekend in December, I was still able to find time to have fun. One weekend, I went to a Glay concert with Antoine, the French ALT at our school. He had an extra ticket. He has been able to see the band Glay play in Japan a couple of times now because he’s a member of the fan club. This band is very popular, so it is very difficult to get a ticket during the regular tickets sales. They’re one of the bands where the concert tickets sell out within five minutes of going on sale.
The opening marquee before Glay arrived onstage.
I thought the ticket price was slightly steep for me at the time, considering I was saving my money for my winter vacation trip, but I jumped at the chance since Antoine was pretty much offering a guaranteed ticket, and I don’t know if I could find another way to see Glay live in Japan. I’ve also been wanting to see them in concert since I was in high school, so I got to cross an item off my bucket list!
The concert was at Saitama Super Arena, and it lasted for about two hours. The concert was fun, but Glay mostly played songs from their new album, and most of their songs that I’m familiar with were popular around 10 years ago. I was waiting for them to play Survival, Super ball, or The Frustrated, but they never did. I can’t say I was disappointed though. They started out as a visual kei band, and everyone still had colorful and gravity-defying hair.
One day, in the middle of the week, some of the teachers from the English department took us ALTs to a festival in Omiya, near Hikawa-jinja. It was a special festival where they were selling these lucky charms called kumade or bear claws. The actually look more like bamboo rakes, so that you can rake in good luck for the new year.
These types of charms can actually be really huge, and it’s common for people who own restaurants, or own their own businesses to go and buy one. They buy the biggest one they can afford, and then they bring it back, and have it displayed in their restaurant or office in order to bring in good business. Also, if you pay close attention to some of the “business owners” who buy some of the large kumade, you can tell that some of them are members of the yakuza. Of course, anyone can buy a kumade for their own personal good luck as well.
Kumade for sale by Hikawa-jinja in Omiya.
Of course, I felt I had to buy my own kumade so that I too, could rake in good luck. I found a medium-sized one for only about 2,000 yen! I thought it was going to be more expensive, but I think the vendor I bought it from gave me a discount because I’m a foreigner. I got a special kumade decorated for the year of the Ram! I now have it hanging on my wall in my apartment.
My kumade. Raking in good luck for the year of the ram!
The last thing I want to talk about is the Japanese Emperor. The Emperor’s Birthday, December 23rd, is a National Holiday in Japan. On his birthday, the Emperor makes a short speech on the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. It is only one of two days throughout the whole year when the inner courtyard of the Imperial Palace is open to the public.
Stephen, a fifth-year Saitama JET, invited me, and a few other Saitama JETs, to go and see the Emperor’s birthday speech. I woke up early in order to ride the train all the way from central Saitama to Tokyo station. All of us who were attending met up at around 9 in the morning, and then we walked over to the Imperial Palace.
It was crowded. There were many people dressed formally, and quite few boy scouts and girl scouts in their uniforms. There were also many people who obviously yakuza, or other staunch conservative nationalists.
We had to go through two rounds of security before we could walk into the inner courtyard of the Imperial Palace. First, they had to check our bags and pockets, and then they separated the men and women so they they could perform quick pat-downs. Also, while on our walk towards the inner walls of the Imperial Palace we were handed free Japanese flags. It’s not usual that you see so many national Japanese flags at once.
Usually, if you see a lot Japanese flags, or national symbols concentrated in one area, or someone is wearing a lot of nationalist symbols on their clothes, it’s assumed that they are yakuza. That’s the reason why you don’t see so many normal Japanese people act super patriotic for their country, like you would see a normal American do on the Fourth of July, or other American holidays.
Imperial Guard
Just before going through the gate into the inner courtyard, many people were trying to catch quick snaps of the Imperial guards, but many of the police kept trying to keep the crowd moving inside, so that everyone could get in.
Even though we ended up near the back of the crowd we could still get a good view of the Emperor. He made his speech from a window-ed balcony, and at least six other members of the Imperial Family were also present. Mostly it was just the Emperor, his wife, the Crown Prince, and the Crown Princesses.
We also stood by a group of very nationalistic attendees. You’re not supposed to bring large banners to the speech, so as not to block everyone’s view. They make a point to make sure everyone who comes can see the Emperor. However, these people somehow got in with their banners, but they stood in the very, back. Everyone in our group decided to refer to them as banzai cheerleaders. They really love Japan, and they really love their Emperor.
These Banzai Cheerleaders were right behind us, but didn’t cause any trouble.
Just before the Emperor arrived, the constant reminders of the loudspeakers went silent, and the Banzai Cheerleaders behind us started to sing the Japanese national anthem.
When the Emperor appeared, everyone waved their flags in excitement! The Emperor gave a short speech that only lasted about 3 minutes, before he bowed to everyone, and then the he and the royal family went back inside the Palace.
I couldn’t get any pictures of the Royal Family, but this is how close we were.
I didn’t understand much of the speech, but some of the other ALTs who were able to understand more, told me that he mentioned that he thinks Japan must unite and me strong together. Apparently, the Emperor also mentioned that everyone should take care of themselves during the shorter days of winter. He also mentioned that his thoughts were especially with the elderly who live in rural areas, stuck with heavy snow. He said he is the same age as those who are stuck in their houses and need help, and that he wouldn’t know what he would do if he were stuck in their situation.
After his speech, we all hopped on the train over to Shinagawa, and had a big early lunch at TGI Friday’s. There’s nothing like celebrating the birthday of a Japanese monarch by eating American food! I ended up eating too much food, since I was ordering food I normally cannot get in Japan, but I was technically on vacation already, so it was okay.
Overall, I had a very lovely December, even if it was progressively getting colder outside, and inside the school too!
Next time, I will be writing about my big winter vacation trip to . . . . THAILAND!
Stay-tuned! I should have that post up before next week!
Jet Set Victoria 