September 27th, 2005

Chris asked someone at one of his middle schools if it was ok if I came
to their culture day. Apparenty, someone said it was fine and
that he could bring me. So on Sunday morning, we go over to Nichu
Middle school. I get there and sit down at Chris's desk while he
goes to talk to some teachers about what he's supposed to do.



Thus the weirdness begins. The teachers see me and kinda freak
out. They just stare in confusing and are actually kinda rude to
me. Apparently, no one was made aware that I was coming to school
and it was very very awkward for me. Chris was still talking to
his teacher so he had no idea how weird everyone was being. Part
of the problem is that they thought i was Lisa, the ALT that worked at
the school last year and were very very suprised that I was a foreigner
they didnt know. Like I said...AWKWARD.



Anyways, they had a boring and long teachers meeting and announced who
I was so everyone went "oooohhh!" and it was a lot better after
that. Anyways, we were to go to the gym for opening ceremonies
and then a chorus competition so I decided I had better use the potty
first. Ok...so...toilets in japan haven't really been discussed
here and its time to. The japanese have squatty potties.
They suck. Its basically a trough in the ground and always smells
like pee. I am very unskilled at using them and hate them.
I will normally hold it until I get home where we have our lovely
western toilet. Anyways, I get done using the wretched toilet and
fuss at poor chris for awhile about how I hate them. We make out
way to the gym.



Foreigners have an odd effect on Japanese kids. We kinda make
them stop and stare at us. Chris jokes that to stop a kid from
running you can just go "hallo!" and they will stop dead and stare at
you in a blind panic. Its really funny because its true.
Anyways we get to the gym and go through the opening ceremonies which
are kinda boring but there was a really funny skit that I only half
understood but was still funny. Then there was a really really
long Chorus competition. REALLY Long. And yes, one class
did sing a japanese choral version of "Country Road". Yeah, that
song by John Denver. I was practically choking with held in
laughter because of it. Finally, after like 2 HOURS of not really
good kids singing, it was over. They had announcements and
announced the ALT (chris) and THEN announced that his Fiance was with
him and made me stand up. Everyone swirled around on the floor
and went "oooooooooh!".



So then it was lunch time. By this time there is this group of
girls. They were obviously bad girls but one of them (Mizuki)
took a liking to me. She proceeded to become my shadow for the
rest of the day. Its was cute but really strange. She was
strange. She didnt want to talk to Chris (who she declared wasnt
cute or beautiful, but I was) and wanted to talk to me. She didnt
get anywhere with it because Chris wasnt leaving when she tried to make
him go away. Im telling you, it was just weird.



Anyways, after lunch we got to wander around and look at
exhibits. I got to meet some of the kids and watch kids interact
with the kids. He's SO GOOD with these kids. Even the
annoying ones. I like watching him with them. He's the fun
and very very stange gaijin that makes all the girls giggle and the
guys talk to. I think he's very strange to them and confuses them
alot. Sometimes he manages to startle them into actually using
English. Heh. Funny. Anyways, at one exhibit area,
Chris had some posters up that he made (I helped!...sorta) and a quiz
about them. We hung around there for awhile trying to get people
to do the quiz and help them out with answers. It was funny. We
also would get a lot of little girls tapping on windows we were by and
making a shape of a heart with their hands (its a very popular thing in
Japan for little girls I think) and point and Chris and me. So I
would do it back. The symbol looks like this:



(yes I know Im not smiling here...but I was taking this picture by myself so it was kinda hard to get and I was concentrating)



Then we went back to the gym to hear the brass band.
Unfortunately, Chris had to leave to grade the quizzes and managed to
miss the entire band thing. And it was SO GOOD. I was very
impressed. The kids actually danced while playing instruments and
sometims when they werent playing at the moment, they would run to the
front of the band and do a chorus line dance sort of thing. Very
cool. After the band (chris got back like 30 seconds after
the last song) they had this weird adn really really boring skit thing
and then talent show. Ugh! It lasted forever. Finally
it was time for closing cermonies...which was alos kinda boring.
Im sure it wasnt as boring to most people but we had no idea what was
going on. Chris did go up front and announce the winners of his
quiz and gave out hats to the winners. And then we sat around for
another hour to give out the booby prize to people who didnt win
(sweettarts).



All in all, it was a fun and very interesting experience. Sports
day was on monday, and because of the reaction I got when I came for
culture day, Chris and I decided it was best for me to not go. I
mean, the teachers were really weird about me being there so he just
left me at home like normal. Anyways, I start my day and Im in
the middle of sweepign the floor when I get a phone call.
Apparently everyone is confused about why I am not with Chris at Sports
Day. *head desk*



Yesterday they were confused and upset that I was there! NOW they
are confused and upset that Im not there. I dont. get.
it. Anyways, Chris came and picked me up and took me out to
sports day. Now, according to Chris, there are two types of
sports during Sports Day. Crazy relay races and crazy tug o' war
competitions. Anyways, sports day was fun. When we got
there, they were doing their cheers. The kids worked really hard
on their cheers. Most of them had props and some did some
gynastic stunts. It was very impressive and really cute. I
had fun during the cheers. Yellow won the cheers (teams are
divided by classes and given a color) because they were under the time
limit AND had a wicked awesome stunt where four guys squatted on the
ground, three guys then climbed on their shoulders and squatted down,
and then one guy hopped on their shoulders and squatted down.
Then!! The bottom guys stood up, and then the middle guys stood
up, and then the top guy stood up and unrolled a scroll and held it
up. It was very impressive. They fell on their first try
but then they got it on the second. It was obviously a very
difficult stunt and won them lots of points.



Then they started some more events. They were cute and fun to
watch. I couldnt always figure out what was going on but the kids
were having a blast and its always fun to see happy kids. Mizuki
and her posse where roaming around and came to talk to us for a
bit. Lisa, the ALT from last year dropped by...which was good and
bad. It kinda disrupted chris's bonding experience with both
teachers and kids because she was there and all the attention was on
her. Oh well.



Anyways...Sports day was fun. I dont really know who won but I
think it was Team Yellow. IT was difficult to figure out what was
going on. And that was my experience with Chris's school.
Made me understand why he's so damn tired when he gets home...its
exhausting constantly being on show and being watched. You have
to stay peppy and excited about everything. Woosh...



In other news, we went shopping for beds finally. We decided to
get two futon and just put them together. It works very
well! No more tiny bed! Horray! I have a picture of
our futon:



Chris's is the blue one, mine is the tan one. Normally I take
them up in the day but I put them down so I could take a picture.
They are quite comfortable and not hard to take care of at all as long
as you DO take care of them. I think they are cute. Plus,
we both get our own blanket so its just over all a good idea. I
like the futon.



And for a couple more pictures because you guys ask (I dont have any
from culture day or sports day because I thought it might be weird if I
took pictures of other people's kids...Chris might have some).
These probably wont interest you...because its just of a sign Chris and
I saw at a pharmacy. We see this side:



And start to giggle because it looks like happy poo on the sign.
But obviously it CANT be happy poo...its probably just chocolate or
something? No one has happy poo on their signs...right?



WRONG! Its for a constipation pill I think. Or maybe a
fiber pill. ITs just SO WEIRD. Heh. I just wanted to
share!



And finally, look what Chris found for me! Im so excited about
it! Once I get my japanese books in (liek the grammar and stuff)
I will most likely be able to read it. Im so happy. I
almost cried in the store. Im putting these pictures as
thumbnails, just click on them and they should get bigger...I just want
you to see the details without making it hard to read the posts
(warning: VERY LARGE pictures).














Arent they awesome!?!?!