I just finished up my last class for the week and I`m chilling out in the teacher`s room at Akinokami elementary. `Chilling` is the operative word- that classroom had to be 85 degrees or so, and the teacher`s room is a comfortable 70 with a nice breeze. I think I sweated out about half my body weight running around that stuffy room with a bunch of fourth graders. On the plus side, one of the kids had attended school abroad and was extremely fluent in English- she helped translate a bit for me when some of the other kids used difficult Japanese.

So, the first week. I taught at 3 elementary schools and one junior high school. So far, I definitely prefer the elementary school kids. They`re generally very energetic and eager to participate, even if they don`t speak English... and the ones who do are incredibly happy and proud to show it off. They enjoy any opportunity to run around a bit, which makes lesson planning dead easy (Hmm... ten minutes to kill? FRUITS BASKET!) On the other hand, my 4 JHS classes were various degrees of painful. The kids are either shy, nervous, or surly enough that they dont` bother to answer questions, even easy ones that they certainly know the answers to. They misbehave in class, talking to each other or sleeping at their desks. I handed out a very very simple writing exercise asking the students to list their favorite movie/TV show and an adjective for it- funny, interesting, romantic etc. I got about a third of them back completely blank. It`s a little frustrating, but I`m optimistic that it will get better.

Yesterday, Lissette took a brave solo journey to the Prefectural Immigration Office to request permission to work. She managed to navigate the treacherous Tokushima Bus Station correctly on the first try, a feat I doubt I could replicate. We expected a weeks-along bureacratic run around full of incomprehensible delays and ridiculously elaborate kanji-laden forms. Instead, it took about five minutes and she didn`t even have to fill in half of the paper- they just photocopied her gaijin card and `See Attached Form`ed the rest. She now has permission to work up to 28 hours per week for pay. My wonderful supervisor Sato-sensei is assisting her with some job-hunting this afternoon.

Tonight is my Board of Education`s offical Welcome Party. This is my first real enkai since I got here. It should be a good time.

In theory, tomorrow we get home internet. Cross your fingers for us.

Three classes yesterday at Satoura. They all went very well. The 5th graders were full of questions, albeit in Japanese. Surprisingly, I understood most of their questions well enough to answer them.

I ate lunch with that 5th grade class. One of the kids was talking to me, describing different kinds of Japanese food and how much they cost. I couldn`t figure out why he was talking about that until the teacher leaned over and whispered `That boy`s family has a restaurant. He wants you to eat there.` Heh. Adorable.

My favorite class of the day was the sixth-graders. They were very friendly and eager, and their teacher Maeda-sensei was awesome. During my self-introduction I showed a picture of Star Wars and said `I like Star Wars very much. Do you like Star Wars?` and behind me, Maeda-sensei began loudly humming The Imperial March. Wicked cool.

Today I`m at Seto Elementary, a small school. Only 33 students total. This morning I joined the students for morning calisthenics and a tug-of-war. I have one class at 10:30 and the rest of the day free. If I`m reading the lesson plan correctly, I need to condense my 30-minute self intro down into 10 minutes or so. I guess I`ll leave out the part where I recreate the beginning of `Raiders of the Lost Ark.`

I just noticed that one of the other teachers in the room is wearing a Budweiser polo.

Monday, August 31 saw me rising bright and early to get to Daini JHS for my first day at a school. I arrived around 8, said good morning, and laid claim to my too-small desk. I met my JTEs, including an ex-eikawa teacher who sits next to me. Her English is quite good- I helped her get through a Time article on Ted Kennedy`s death.

At 8:15 we had a teacher`s meeting, which I understood perhaps 5% of. I introduced myself to the staff in Japanese. At 9:30 there was a school-wide meeting in the gymnasium, and I got to introduce myself to the students. I started by saying in Japanese `Should I speak in English or Japanese? Well, since I don`t understand Japanese at all, I`ll speak in English. Let`s speak English together!` That seemed to go over well, and then I switched to English to introduce myself.

There were no actual classes that day, I spent the day alternating between sitting in the teacher`s room and visiting classrooms/wandering the halls. I left early to visit the bank and post office, since Monday was payday. I sent a lot of cash back to the States for student loans and car payments and such.

Today I`m at Satoura Elementary. I have three classes, all of which will consist of my self-introduction and various games. I`m kind of nervous.

The end of August is almost upon us. Summer holidays end this week, and starting Monday I`ll be spending my time in my schools rather than the Board of Education office that I`ve been based in this month.

I have 7 schools, although I`ll only really be visiting 6 of them.

Daini Junior High is the closest thing I have to a base school. It`s about a 20-25 minute bike ride from our apartment. It`s a pretty big school by local standards- maybe 500-600 students? I`ll be there about 7-8 days a month. The school is on one edge of town, and the ride to it takes me past several sweet-potato fields. I`ll try to get a picture of the building when I go there for my first lesson next week. I visited last week to say hello to the teachers and staff I`ll be working with. The PE coach offered to give me kendo lessons, which is frankly terrifying.

Not far from Daini JHS are two of my elementary schools, Hayasaki and Satoura. They`re both a bit smaller than Daini. When I visited Satoura last week, I ran into a group of 20 or so 1st through 3rd graders who were at the school for some kind of summer program. They were shy at first, but after a bit of hiding they warmed up to me. I got my first crotch-grab within 5 minutes (no kancho attempts yet), and by the ten minute mark everyone was laughing and I was serving as a makeshift jungle gym. Good times. I visit Hayasaki 2-3 times a month, Satoura once or twice.

On the other side of town, along the ocean, is my second base school- Seto Junior High. It`s about a 40 minute bike ride from the apartment. A long ride, but the terrain is flat and the scenery is very nice. Seto`s about the same size as Daini. They get me 7-8 times a month. Near Seto JHS is another elementary school, Seto Elementary. Seto Elementary also hosts the solitary student from Shimada Elementary, which is up in the hills on one of the nearby islands. Shimada is pretty sad- it`s a lovely school building that could probably handle 250-300 students, but it`s almost empty. The school has one student, one teacher, and the principal- that`s it. That lonely kid gets driven to Seto Elementary when I`m there... I don`t think I`ll ever have to go out to Shimada again. Along the way to the two Seto schools is my last elementary, Akinokami. I stopped by there this weekend and watched baseball practice. It was pretty funny in a 1950s sort of way- all the kids out there busting their butts while the men lounged back smoking and the ladies served tea. I visit these elementary schools once or twice a month.

I have the remainder of this week to finish work on my self introduction (10-20 minutes, with pictures and visual aids) and steel myself for actual classroom work. I`ll miss the BoE office- friendly folks and lots of free time, but I`m looking forward to working with the kids.