pictionary depictions

One thing I like about teaching kids here in Japan is the ability to play Pictionary in class and pretend that it’s an educational game. And, generally, it seems to work – most kids seem to like it, since it involves drawing and not just doing work out of the textbook, and I like it because it’s, well, Pictionary- like the best board game ever!

I haven’t played the game at all this school year – which is a first, since I usually like to pull it out whenever I don’t’ know what to teach or my teachers are also struggling to think of a game. This time, for an All Play, or when one person from each group had to draw, I got them to draw me. Yes, it was kinda self-indulgent, but I just wanted to see what my students thought of me and how they could convey “Narin” in less than a minute.

I’m pretty impressed with some of the pictures. what scares me though is that all the groups eventually guessed it was me, even with some extremely questionable pictures involved.

Do I really look that much like a murder-scene body outline?

no escape from japan in china

Oh Japan. Even when I go overseas, I still feel your influence. Another week of public holidays meant I had to travel somewhere and take advantage of it. The result? China, a little more expensive than I was expecting it to be, but still awesome since it's a country I've never been to before and never thought I would in my lifetime get to see.

We just recently discovered the awesomeness of online tour packages from Okinawa, where we realised we could find tour companies' "tours", which can involve as little as flights and accommodation, or be complete with giant Japanese tour bus, tour guides waving flags for tourists to follow, and be packed with inadequately-short stops at a bunch of famous tour places. While we went for the DIY Okinawa tour last time, only having 4 days, we opted for the latter this time, to make sure we could see everything we wanted to, without the hassle of planning it in another language.

I started getting super excited when I got my package from the tour company - it came with stickers we had to wear to identify ourselves as members of the tour group. While I laugh at the busloads of tourists following flags everywhere else, I've always secretly wanted to be mindless and just follow a flag to take me to all the places I should see.

Arriving in Tianjin with our stickers attached, we were greeted by a nervous looking tour guide, who obviously was shocked and freaked out about greeting non-Japanese people. After the awkward greetings and the sighs of relief when she realised we could understand Japanese, we were taken to the transport outside to take us into Beijing. so much for my dreams of being on a big J-tour bus.

Turns out, there were other Japanese people on the same tour as us. Just separated. Apparently, the tour company was worried after seeing our foreign names that we might not be able to understand the Japanese tour, so decided to separate us from the rest of the Japanese goup. While it did give us the freedom to just hang with who we came with, it was almost like being put in the "special" group for people who couldn't interact with the regulars. It was a little insulting.

But oh Japan, while I do feel insulted that you separated us from the regular group, which while feeling mean is probably something done out of consideration of us, you still gave us a tour guide that spoke Japanese and not a single word of English. Despite your concerns about us not understanding the Japanese tour. Even our Japanese-speaking tour guide was asking why we didn't request an English-speaking guide.

The weirdest moment came as we were buying snacks for a Chinese circus show. Finding all these awesome-looking snacks, me and my friends were discussing what to get in English, while conveying that in Japanese to our guide for her to order for us in Chinese. The shop lady was just giving us weird looks and laughing, since she had no idea what language to speak to any of us hearing 3 languages flying about.

Oh Japan. Thanks to you, my whole image and experience of my first new country-visit outside of Japan is all in Japanese.

sports festival relay

Another year, and another school sports festival to look forward to. Well, for everyone except me. Turns out, I'm not good at the whole cheering thing - especially when I don't know if I should cheer in English or Japanese, so instead of the whole "wooo! You can do it! Go red team!" or whatever the equivalent is in Japanese that I should be saying, all that comes out is a seemingly half-arsed clap and little "Yay!", which I'm sure comes off as even more insincere to Japanese ears as well. It must be a consequence of not actually following any sport at all for as long as I remember.

I'm totally convinced my lack of enthusiasm got me demoted this year. Last year, I was part of the white team, and as opposed to my first year, where I wasn't part of any team, half-arsed cheered just my team, and not every team. I'm pretty sure the teachers noticed - at the post-sports festival staff party, all the teachers were given pictures of themselves during the festival- the only one of me that I got was one with me standing, arms crossed, blankly staring in the general direction of the sports field. If that was the best picture they found of me, then I clearly was not as convincing as I was hoping to be.

So while I suck at the whole being supportive thing, I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't be involved. Granted, while I'm not considered a real teacher here and my limited Japanese means I'm not able to really supervise kids or anything, I would've liked to have some role, however menial. I would've been happy with anything.

Anything except for the teacher's relay. It was the traumatic part of my first year that I've blocked out for as long as I could. Just after I got here two years ago, I was asked to join the relay. Actually, I can't imagine anything else I could detest even more. Seriously, me and running brings back flashbacks of being that kid everyone would tag and be 'it', and would stay 'it' for pretty much the rest of the game. But, trying to please everyone, and being optimistic, I said yes. After all, what's the worst that could happen?

Well, my sucking happened, that's what. Like, really sucking. I hadn't run for ages before that, so while I was beaten by everyone else in the relay, I just assumed that they were just the fast kids at the school. After going back to the team tents, I was greeted with pointing,  laughs and "why are you so slow?" If I was naked and forgot to study for the huge test today, it would've been that dream I had all through school.

But, that was two years ago, I'm sure everyone forgot about that, right? While there are new teachers, apparently my reputation precedes me. As the teachers were working out the two relay teams, I managed to persuade my vice principal to let the other new teachers who were keen join the relay. "Oh! that's right! You're really slow!" said my vice principal. Embarrassing? Yes, but anything to get out of the relay.

Apparently, I didn't realise how embarrassing it could get. I'm still involved in the relay. Although, because I'm slow, they've put me on the female teachers' relay team, since they couldn't get enough female teachers who wanted to run. So not only am I going to lose, I'm now going to lose to a bunch of prepubescent girls as the only guy in the relay. Can it get any worse

 Man, I really hope there's no test that I have to study for that day, and that I remember to wear clothes.