Snapshots from the past week

I officially started school one week ago today, and it' s been a ride. I've been to 4 schools already, and each has been quite different. Going into details would be too lengthy to ever actually get posted and might be boring too, so here are just the highlights, in no particular order:

--This morning. Riding in the back of the taxi going down my road, chillin' in the back, the wind blowing my hair dry from the morning shower, sunglasses in place, waving like the freakin' Queen to kids on the side of the road, who sometimes start chasing the taxi, yelling "hello! hello!"... if that doesn't make your day, nothing will.

--My welcome reception at Hitakatsu elementary school, last Friday. Following the principal into the gym, walking through a double line of kids assigned to be the welcome party holding up flower-chain bridges over my head. We swerve to avoid crashing into the rest of the assembly, a mass of small bodies waving and clapping and smiling, focused so hard on me I thought their eyes just might devour me. Melting from the adorableness of it all.

--The scene directly following the end of my 4th-grade class at Hitakatsu Elementary. My body covered in children. At least two on each arm, tugging in different directions, to go see this part of the classroom or go to get ready for lunch. One mischevious girl behind, tickling my lower back at odd moments. Two kids in front, holding out the cage with their class bug-- a big black beast-- and the rest of the swarm behind, jabbering at me in little-kid Japanese all sorts of questions, like how old I am and if I'm married.

--This morning, outside, at the start of practice for Sports Day. Scrambling around in the grass to find a bug-- and bug-- catching a small green grasshopper, and using it to convince the 1st-grade autistic child to slide all the way down the playground slide and stop trying to scramble back up. His eyes were so big when I opened my hands to let him see it.

--Last week, Sports Day practice at Tobu middle school. Hiding in the back, behind the students, working out with my Japanese teacher of English (JTE) who is trying to stick to a diet and losing tons of weight to battle pre-diabetes. It almost kills me to try to follow what the kids are doing, a highly-energetic, lunge and squat-intensive traditional dance that I later find out other schools are also practicing. The principal eventually joins us and, a few minutes later, flops to the ground on his stomach in a sad and sweaty heap. I thought he might actually be having actue physical distress and briefly considered going for the school nurse, but then he hauled himself up and did a few push-ups. Tough guy. Three days later, I still hurt from that one practice.

--The looks of excitement in the kids' faces-- nearly every kid's face so far-- when, at the end of my self-introduction, I haul out a copy of "Sailor Moon" and "Neon Genesis Evangelion" in English. The other teachers, even the ones I'm not working with, are almost more excited than the kids. They're even more blown away when I explain to the older kids that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic was originally designed, in part, by someone from Maine.

--The magical moment this morning when my taxi rounded a curve, and there was a bay with water so still that the reflection of the surrounding mountains was unmarred except for where the piles for catching oysters floated peacefully.

--On a drive with one of my JTEs over the weekend, we saw an area that was almost completely covered, from the edge of one mountain to the next in all directions, with rice paddies blowing gently in the breeze. (There aren't that many rice paddies near my apartment-- it's kind of a haul to see one, it's too mountainous here--so it was unique for this area). Later, we flushed a partridge, or a partridge-like thing, which probably startled us more than the bird.

--Nearly ever day after school. My arms crossed and head lolling around, napping in the taxi on the way home. Or, if that proves impossible from the speed at which a particular driver goes, dropping my things inside the door, slipping off my shoes, and flopping on the tatami mat for a brief no-movement-no-thinking recuperation from the energy required to keep up with the kids.

--Saturday night, having dinner with my next-door neighbor and couple who lives above me. Trying to not drink copious amounts of alcohol, or at least balance it out with water, but still take advantage of having someone to share a bottle of wine with. In addition to the obligatory kanpai beer and following shochu. Trying cow's heart and tongue for what I believe is the first time (they were particularly explicit in their explanation... I don't always ask, sometimes preferring not to know. Actually, the heart was very tasty and I would never have known it was something unusual had I not been told). Being told that I have "a Japanese heart" because I'm modest. I told them that my more boisterous American heart might come out with more alcohol. They refilled my glass. Later, trying to explain the concept of and how to make a shooter. Finally achieved understanding and, I believe, a new respect from the man who lives above me.

...in the end, respect is what it's all about. I have so much respect for all of the teachers in my schools now. I'm supposed to be young-- on average, half as old as most of them-- and I'm exhausted at the end of every day. I don't know how they do it. Copious amounts of never-ending coffee helps, but one needs a sort of stamina, fueled in part from the kids' energy but at the same time self-sustaining. I'm learning to cultivate it, running in part off the above treasured moments of the past week. Let's hope there are many more to come.